 Richard Barry-Doyle arrived in New York at the behest of Father Paul Wattson, a Franciscan Friar of the Atonement, who enlisted the priest to raise funds for the humanitarian activities of Greek Catholic Bishop George Calavassy, the apostolic exarch in Constantinople.In 1926, Pope Pius XI united Catholic organizations working in the region under the "Catholic Near East Welfare Association," centralizing and strengthening Catholic relief.Rather than being specifically oriented to Russia, the organization rapidly expanded to cover the entirety of what was then known as the "Near East."