‘Charity doesn’t go on vacation’: Pope Leo XIV sends food to families in Ukraine

Market in Shevchenkove settlement in Kharkiv Oblast of Ukraine after a 2023 Russian rocket strike. / Credit: Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kharkiv Oblast, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 19, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV once again expressed his closeness to the people of Ukraine by sending packages of food destined to families who have suffered from the Russian army’s recent onslaught of attacks.

Thanks to the mediation of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity — the dicastery in charge of the pontiff’s charitable works also known as the Office of the Papal Almoner — and donations from the faithful, the aid will reach the village of Staryi Saltiv and the city of Shevchenkove, both affected by Russian bombing.

With this much-needed aid, which follows the aid sent in June, the Holy Father renews his gesture of solidarity with the victims of the bloody war that began in February 2022.

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, told Vatican News that “charity does not go on vacation” and that Pope Leo XIV asked them to “act as quickly as possible.”

The trucks with the food packages left for Ukraine from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Basilica of Santa Sofia (Holy Wisdom) in Rome, which has become a center of solidarity for all Romans and a point of reference for the Ukrainian community in the Italian capital. In addition to the food, essential items were also donated.

On June 13, the Holy See also sent a truck with humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Food and essential items as well as mattresses, furniture, and children’s supplies also left from the Roman basilica.

On that occasion, Krajewski stated that the Vatican’s mission of solidarity has continued uninterrupted by the invasion of Ukrainian territory by the Russian army.

On the boxes containing the aid delivered directly to families in need, the words “Gift of Pope Leo XIV to the people of Kharkiv” can be read in Ukrainian and Italian.

On July 9, Pope Leo XIV took time out from his summer vacation in Castel Gandolfo to receive the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During their meeting, the two leaders discussed the ongoing conflict and “the urgency of pursuing just and lasting paths of peace.”

The pope also expressed his profound sorrow for the victims of the war and renewed his spiritual closeness to the Ukrainian people, encouraging all efforts aimed at the release of prisoners and the search for shared solutions.

Leo XIV also reaffirmed the Holy See’s willingness to welcome representatives of Russia and Ukraine to the Vatican for possible peace negotiations.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.