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The stunning surprise of the day: Cardinal Krajewski, as reported in L’Osservatore Romano, highlighted “how the Pope’s support came about in a practical way: Here they have difficulty in finding diesel fuel and therefore, through charity, the Holy Father has paid for many trips by truck, large trucks carrying humanitarian aid inside Ukraine.”
THE PAPAL ALMONER BRINGS AID, SOLIDARITY AND HOPE TO UKRAINE
(My quick translation from a report in the March 9 edition of L’Osservatore Romano)
Solidarity moves along roads that bombs threaten, roads where carrying boxes of food and packages of medicine can be a journey of no return. But this is the solidarity sustained in the heart of Francis.
News comes from the areas around Lviv where the “arm” of this papal closeness, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, has arrived after his stay in Poland, amidst the ocean of refugees that continues to swell. The papal almsgiver crossed the Ukrainian border, and met with and told Vatican media about the massive effort underway in the relative safety of Lviv to reach even those who are still under falling missiles or are struggling to embark on the escape route between the shores of very fragile humanitarian corridors.
The cardinal explains: “I am in the outskirts of Lviv, and for security reasons we do not say where. It is here that all the great aid arrives from the European community through Poland. Everything is unloaded in large warehouses and from here the trucks leave for Kiev, for Odessa, towards the south of the country.” The good news, Cardinal Krajewski says with satisfaction, “is that all this aid is still reaching its destination, despite the bombings.” The bishops of Kiev, Odessa, Karkhiv, and the apostolic nuncio with whom he is in contact, confirmed this.
He then highlighted how the Pope’s support came about in a practical way: “Here they have difficulty in finding diesel fuel and therefore, through charity, the Holy Father has paid for many trips by truck, large trucks carrying humanitarian aid inside Ukraine.” (file photo)
Yesterday in Lviv the papal almsgiver also met the Greek-Catholic Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk. Tomorrow Cardinal Krajewski will meet for a moment of prayer with the archbishop and the heads of various confessions who are able to participate. “We know that faith – he says – is able to move mountains, so we read in the Gospel, and we are sure of it. I think we will be able to stop this war precisely with our prayer, with our faith.”
Solidarity and prayer together give breath to hope. Hoping, despite everything, is an obvious encourgement in many who have left home and intend to return. “Here – said the cardinal, “every five minutes I see refugees arriving from the eastern part of Kiev. Many are waiting for liberation, they pray and truly thank the European community which brings them so many gifts, which is close, which prays for them. They had never felt so close: they already felt part of Europe, through these humanitarian gestures they now feel an integral part of it.”
Joan's Rome 