By Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News
OSV News – As a relentless winter descends upon wartorn Ukraine with temperatures dropping to 5 degrees Fahrenheit, the Holy See has intensified its humanitarian response to the nation’s energy and health crises.
According to a Feb. 9 report by Vatican News, three trucks carrying 80 electricity generators departed Rome’s Basilica of St. Sophia, known as the Church of the Ukrainians, and arrived in Kyiv and Fastiv, located 45 miles southwest of the capital.
The delivery, which included food and medicine, was sent to the country at Pope Leo XIV’s request and coordinated by the Dicastery for the Service of Charity.
In a telephone interview with OSV News Feb. 10, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner and prefect of the dicastery, said the aid mission was a tangible sign that the Pope has not forgotten the suffering of the Ukrainian people.
“The Holy Father is very, very attentive to everything that happens,” Cardinal Krajewski said, noting that one does not need a great imagination to understand the agony of a people living without electricity in the dead of winter. “The Church must be exactly where the people suffer”.
With the war now entering its fourth year, Russia has been focusing its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving thousands of innocent civilians without electricity and heat in the cold winter season.
According to the Reuters news agency, a Russian drone attack Feb. 9 struck energy facilities in the Odesa region, leaving an estimated 95,000 people without power.
Before concluding his weekly general audience Feb. 4, Pope Leo called on Catholics to “support with prayer our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, who are being severely tested by the consequences of the bombings which have resumed, also striking energy infrastructure.”
He also expressed his gratitude “for the solidarity initiatives promoted by Catholic dioceses in Poland and other countries, which are working to help the people endure this time of extreme cold.”
Cardinal Krajewski told OSV News that to ensure supplies are distributed to those in need, the dicastery works through local bishops and parish priests, including a Dominican-run center that dispatches high-power generators to high-need areas such as Odessa, Kharkiv and Kyiv.
The medicines sent by the dicastery, according to Vatican News, include antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and supplements, as well as melatonin to help people who, in a state of chronic insomnia and trauma, cannot sleep.
In sending such medicines and supplements, Cardinal Krajewski said the Pope is addressing a hidden wound of war: the inability to find rest. “It is a sign of love, a sign that they are not alone, even if we are kilometers away from them,” he said.
“The Holy Father thinks of every small detail. I have been there many times, but I try to go because presence counts – to be with them, to live with them,” the Cardinal continued. “I think for them it is a very important sign of solidarity.”
The papal almoner noted that the aid sent by the Vatican doesn’t just go to Catholics, but also to Greek Catholics, Orthodox and “those who do not commune with the Church.”
“This truly is pure Gospel: to love,” he said.
Cardinal Krajewski also noted the support of the Italian people who donated the generators and “do not tire of helping.”
“We are like the apostles in the early days of the Church, where the people brought their goods to the feet of the apostles because they were sure they would be well distributed,” he told OSV News. “We do the same: what people bring is distributed through the ecclesial and parochial (network), and this is what guarantees that everything reaches those in need.”
Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.
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