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AVSI executive describes 'Open Hospitals' project and Vatican partnerships in Syria
Summary
AVSI's Jackie Aldrete told a Helsinki Commission briefing that AVSI maintained three Catholic hospitals and expanded outreach during Syria’s conflict under Cardinal Mario Zenari’s request, highlighting the Holy See’s role in enabling humanitarian access.
Jackie Aldrete, executive director of AVSI USA and deputy secretary general for U.S. relations at the AVSI Foundation, told a U.S. Helsinki Commission briefing that AVSI’s longstanding partnership with Vatican networks enables humanitarian work in places where other actors have limited access.
Aldrete said AVSI supports roughly 300 development and humanitarian projects in 41 countries, reaching about 4 million people each year. She described the organization’s Open Hospitals project in Syria, launched at the request of Cardinal Mario Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio in Damascus, which kept three Catholic-managed hospitals open throughout the conflict and provided free care to all patients regardless of religion or ability to pay.
Aldrete framed AVSI's work as rooted in Catholic social teaching — solidarity, subsidiarity, and the preferential option for the poor — and said those principles guide both immediate relief and long-term local capacity building. She said close relationships with local church leaders, nuncios and Vatican dicasteries provide both moral support and practical access.
The panel discussed how the Holy See’s neutral posture and deep local networks can protect humanitarian space in fragile contexts and how faith-based organizations and U.S. diplomatic actors sometimes collaborate to sustain services where state capacity is weak.
Aldrete concluded by urging continued collaboration between faith-based organizations, the Vatican and governments to sustain services and support vulnerable populations.
