Vatican Almoner Brings Pope's Care Before Harsh Winter
Archbishop Marín de San Martín will visit Ukrainian Latin and Greek Catholic communities while Vatican employees collect winter supplies for a road convoy.
Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín, the Apostolic Almoner and prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, will travel to Ukraine from October 27 to 30 on a humanitarian mission coordinated through the Apostolic Nunciature. He will meet Latin-rite and Ukrainian Greek Catholic communities to assess needs and to express Pope Leo XIV's closeness amid the war's fifth year.
The visit coincides with a collection organized among Vatican employees of warm clothing, canned food, blankets, sheets, and sleeping bags. The goods are to be transported by road and distributed through local Church structures.
"A very harsh winter is expected, and as Christians, as the Church, we cannot remain indifferent or passive," Archbishop Marín said.
Pastoral Presence and Material Relief
Over four days, the papal almoner is to engage both the Latin rite and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The purpose is concrete: to hear from communities scarred by conflict and displacement and to ensure that winter supplies reach them through dioceses, parishes, and other ecclesial networks already operating on the ground. Channeling aid through the local Church is intended to match relief with real needs rather than external assumptions.
The mission continues previous Holy See assistance to Ukraine, which has included medicines and financial support. It follows recent appeals by Pope Leo XIV for a ceasefire and a telephone conversation between the Holy Father and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A Sign of the Pope's Care
By dispatching the Apostolic Almoner—the prelate responsible for the Holy Father's personal works of mercy—the Holy See underscores that calls for peace are paired with direct solidarity. The staff collection inside the Vatican reinforces the same message: those who serve the Successor of Peter are asked to share coats, food, and bedding with a people facing another winter of war.
Archbishop Marín's journey is framed as Christian duty. In the fifth year of fighting, the combination of a bishop's presence and a road convoy of essentials is meant to assure Ukrainian Catholics—and all who suffer with them—that they are not forgotten by the Church of Rome.