I recently wrote about my encounter with an Iraqi Christian refugee family in Lebanon during a press trip with the Catholic Near East Welfare Association in Nov. 2010. During that trip I also spoke briefly with Issam Bishara, the Vice President for the Pontifical Mission for the Middle East, about the work of the organization, the corruption in Lebanon, and the lives of Christians in the region. A quick podcast of our interview is available, below. I’ll continue to post stories and photos from the trip in the coming weeks.

Kerry Weber joined the staff of America in October 2009. Her writing and multimedia work have since earned several awards from the Catholic Press Association, and in 2013 she reported from Rwanda as a recipient of Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship. Kerry is the author of Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Visit the Imprisoned, and Keep Your Day Job (Loyola Press) and Keeping the Faith: Prayers for College Students (Twenty-Third Publications). A graduate of Providence College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously worked as an editor for Catholic Digest, a local reporter, a diocesan television producer, and as a special-education teacher on the Navajo reservation in Arizona.