PRESS RELEASE – OFFICE OF PAPAL CHARITIES

Pope Francis donates a third ambulance to a hospital in Ukraine

The prayer and closeness of the Holy Father become tangible in helping those who are suffering as a result of the devastating effects of war.

His Eminence Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, Almoner of His Holiness, will again deliver it.

The Almoner, for the eighth time, will travel three thousand kilometres, to the North of the Black Sea in the district of Zboriv in the region of Ternopil, to deliver an ambulance equipped as a mobile reanimation centre to the Central Hospital.

The Almoner will also take a large quantity of essential and life-saving medicines from the Vatican Pharmacy and the Pharmacy of the "Agostino Gemelli" Hospital.

In the Ternopil region, due to the continuing war, numerous convoys arrive daily carrying civilians and soldiers forced to flee from the border area with Russia, where hostilities are most violent. This ambulance will also be a valuable tool to support rescuers of injured people. During this new mission, the Almoner, on behalf of the Holy Father, will also inaugurate the "Saint John Paul II" Rehabilitation Centre, built in the Roman Catholic diocese of Kamyanets-Podilskyy, for the integral, physical and psychological rehabilitation of those who have suffered war trauma. The Centre, like similar ones desired by Pope Francis, was built with contributions from a number of papal foundations such as Church in Need and the Papal Foundation.

These centres, as Pope Francis teaches, are open to ALL, without any distinction on the basis of faith or nationality, and without any exclusion. Treatment is offered not only to those who have suffered injury in battle, but also to their loved ones, wives and children, to support Ukrainian families in this tragic time.

The John Paul II Centre, which will be inaugurated during the last days of June by Cardinal Krajewski, and the donation of the ambulance and the medicines, are gestures of mercy by which Pope Francis reminds us that faith is not disembodied, but rather confronts the difficult situations faced by our poorest and most vulnerable brothers and sisters, like the Good Samaritan who took care of the man attacked and left bleeding on the side of the road or on the peripheries of history.

These concrete gestures of compassion are intended to open the way to mercy, to reach the grace of forgiveness.