{"id":1168574,"date":"2026-08-25T13:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T13:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1168574\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T13:25:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T13:25:17","slug":"papal-almoners-office-supports-solidarity-kitchen-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1168574\/","title":{"rendered":"Papal Almoner\u2019s Office supports solidarity kitchen in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, August 20, 2026, Father Viktor Bilous, a staff member of the Apostolic Nunciature in Ukraine, visited a solidarity kitchen in the village of Berestia, in the Rivne region of northwestern Ukraine and delivered aid to the volunteers on behalf of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity. In an interview with Vatican News, he speaks about this initiative.<\/p>\n

By Svitlana Dukhovych<\/b><\/p>\n

In the village of Berestia, in the Rivne region of northwestern Ukraine, there is a solidarity kitchen, which was founded by volunteer Tetiana Pinchuk. As Father Viktor Bilous, a staff member of the Apostolic Nunciature in Ukraine, explains, Pinchuk turned to the Holy See\u2019s diplomatic mission for assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, asked me to take care of the matter,\u201d the priest recounts. \u201cI looked into the kitchen and prepared a project, which we subsequently sent to the Office of Papal Charities at the Vatican. In a relatively short time, the Office provided funding specifically for this initiative. I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to the Rivne region, to the village of Berestia, to deliver the assistance in person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tetiana\u2019s idea <\/p>\n

Tetiana is a Ukrainian volunteer who has brought together many women from her village and neighboring communities to prepare meals for Ukrainian soldiers in retort pouches\u2014special packaging that allows food to be stored for long periods without refrigeration.<\/p>\n

\"Tetiana<\/p>\n

\n Tetiana in the kitchen\n <\/p>\n

The women regularly gather at Tetiana\u2019s home, where dedicated facilities have been set up to prepare the meals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we arrived there,\u201d Father Viktor recalls, \u201cwe were welcomed with great hospitality. I wasn’t expecting it. We went together with the pastor of the Latin Catholic Church in Sarny, since this is part of his parish territory. They welcomed us with traditional bread, a korovai, which they had made especially for us, and they explained the entire process of preparing the meals, from beginning to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Papal assistance <\/p>\n

The priest noted that the assistance from the Vatican has a twofold significance for these volunteers. They are people of faith. None of them are Catholic; they are Orthodox and Protestant.<\/p>\n

\"Father<\/p>\n

\n Father Viktor Bilous is a staff member of the Apostolic Nunciature in Ukraine\n <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t expect them to place so much emphasis on having received the assistance specifically from the Office of Papal Charities,\u201d\u00a0Father Viktor says. \u201cEven when they welcomed us, they told us, \u2018Representatives of the Pope have come to us.\u2019 They also shared the news on social media. We prayed together, I blessed the food, and we also prayed for our soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secondly, he explained, they wanted others to see the assistance coming from the Vatican and the Pope through his Almoner, in the hope that this might encourage others to come forward and become more involved in this work.<\/p>\n

The painstaking work of ten women <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat moved me was the fact that the volunteers organized themselves and have always relied heavily on Providence and divine help, because they do not have many personal resources at their disposal,\u201d Father Viktor recounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was also deeply moved by the dedication of Tetiana and the women who help her, because this is truly difficult work. I saw the large cauldrons in which the food is prepared, then the meals being packaged in retort pouches, and finally the pouches being placed in autoclaves (or pressure cookers) for sterilization and heat treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this,\u201d Father Viktor continues, \u201crequires physical effort. The autoclave has to be placed on a gas stove and then removed. After that, labels with information about the food are put on the pouches, the boxes are packed and then sent to soldiers in different areas along the front line.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explains that it is a long process as it can take entire day to make a single batch. \u201cAbout ten women take part, sometimes more, sometimes fewer,\u201d Father Viktor says.<\/p>\n

\"Food<\/p>\n

\n Food prepared and packaged at the solidarity kitchen\n <\/p>\n

The beauty of the Church <\/p>\n

The priest explains that, in general, the State provides food for its soldiers, so at first glance it might seem that there is no longer a need for volunteers to work in this area. However, the meals they provide have a longer shelf life and are of better quality and more enjoyable to eat.<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, if soldiers have the contact details of the volunteers who prepare this food,\u201d he observes, \u201cthey contact them directly to get good food and thus have greater strength for their extremely demanding service on the front line.\u201d<\/p>\n

The volunteers have recently been preparing mainly grain-based dishes\u2014buckwheat, barley, rice and so on. In some cases, these meals are even delivered to soldiers by drone.<\/p>\n

\"Food<\/p>\n

\n Food packaging equipment\n <\/p>\n

\u201cSoldiers tell us that during shelling, a food pouch can be damaged, but because it contains grains, the food can still be gathered up,\u201d Father Viktor explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that supporting initiatives like these, however small, is very important, because so many people are involved in this work and so many soldiers receive good, nutritious food,\u201d he stresses.<\/p>\n

The priest adds that, as a staff member of the Apostolic Nunciature in Kyiv, he has the opportunity to see how beautiful and effective the Church\u2014the universal Church\u2014can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the Nunciature coordinates various projects, I have the opportunity to see how all of this happens. I am proud that the Catholic Church can do so much good without waiting for better times. The good it does truly reaches the people who genuinely need it. This is something that always moves me, and I am happy to be involved, at least in some small way, in all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI am proud that the Catholic Church can do so much good without waiting for better times. The good it does truly reaches the people who genuinely need it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, August 20, 2026, Father Viktor Bilous, a staff member of the Apostolic Nunciature in Ukraine, visited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1168575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,7610,657,19276,1292],"class_list":["post-1168574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ukraine","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-solidarity","tag-ukraine","tag-vatican","tag-women"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117156375863740993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1168574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1168575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1168574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1168574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1168574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}