The Pope's almoner in Ukraine: shelters, soup kitchens and a song of hope in Kyiv

The Ukraine mission of Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín, Papal Almoner and Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, got fully under way on 28 October. Travelling with undersecretary Massimo Ralli on behalf of Leo XIV, he is bringing the Pope's closeness to a population worn down by years of war.

The delegation set out on Tuesday 27 October from Warsaw, about twelve hours by car, with Kyiv as the first stop. After Mass at the apostolic nunciature, together with Nuncio Visvaldas Kulbokas and Bishop Oleksandr Yazlovetskyi, president of Caritas-Spes, the almoner visited a centre that distributes food, shelters people with nowhere to go during attacks and supports the elderly, women alone and children. In the underground shelter he blessed the rooms and the people there.

He then visited a Catholic parish still under construction, where volunteers cook hot meals every day for hundreds of people "of every religious affiliation", and the Greek Catholic Curia of Kyiv and its Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection. The last stop, on the outskirts of the capital, was a small centre set up by a military chaplain next to a bombed building, where volunteers and the priest welcomed the delegation with a song of hope.

The mission ends on Friday 30 October, with stops also in Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Fastiv.

Source: Vatican News (our translation).