Pope Leo XIV sends humanitarian aid to Ukraine’s hardest-hit regions, calling it a “small gesture” of solidarity with families enduring exile and fear.
Newsroom (30/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) On Holy Family Sunday, a celebration marked by tenderness and unity, Pope Leo XIV extended a hand of compassion to the people of Ukraine. Three truckloads laden with one hundred thousand packets of fortified soup—a mix of chicken, vegetables, and sustenance—set out from the Vatican toward regions most scarred by months of bombing and deprivation. The Papal Almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, described the effort as a “small gesture,” but one intended to nourish not just bodies, but hope.
For families in Ukraine walking their own modern-day via dolorosa, the imagery invoked by Cardinal Krajewski is deeply resonant. “It is a gesture,” he told Vatican media, “towards families who, like the family of Nazareth, follow the painful path of exile in search of refuge.” Many of these families, the cardinal noted, live in conditions of uncertainty marked by cold, hunger, and displacement.
The Pope’s offering, timed with the December 28 observance in Nazareth, signifies a visible act of solidarity. “God, by being born into such a family, desires to always be where human beings are in danger, where they suffer, where they flee, where they experience rejection and abandonment,” Krajewski said. The message, he explained, is one of proximity—of a Church that refuses to look away.
This isn’t an isolated effort. In the days preceding Christmas, the Office of Papal Charities, partnering with the Nunciatures, quietly distributed financial aid across a number of countries. For Ukraine, the collaboration extended to a practical alliance: three lorries supplied by the Korean company Samyang Foods arrived in Rome, then were redirected toward areas left without electricity, water, or heat.
Pope Leo’s gift carries both material and spiritual meaning. It feeds families facing a frozen winter and affirms that their suffering is not forgotten. “The Holy Father not only prays for peace,” Cardinal Krajewski said, “but he wants to be present in the families who are suffering.”
In a world fatigued by conflict, this “small gesture” stands as a quiet, enduring act of presence—a reminder that compassion, however humble in scale, can light a path through even the darkest exile.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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