The Pope’s international charity: A helping hand to the world’s suffering

By Edoardo Giribaldi

“Charity cannot be delayed,” Pope Leo XIV said on 6 June, the first day of his apostolic journey to Spain, as he addressed staff and beneficiaries of the Cedia 24 Horas social project in Madrid.

Those words have not remained merely words—they have taken on human faces. The face of a mother and her daughter holding a packet of biscuits and a bag of pasta in their small bedroom, surrounded by a teddy bear and a drawing of an Orthodox cathedral pinned to the wall. It takes on the image of food, medicine and humanitarian assistance that the Pope, through the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, sends to people suffering across the world.

A mother and daughter receive humanitarian aid from the Dicastery for the Service of Charity

“Solidarity knows no borders and is not constrained by nationalism,” the Pope’s Almoner, Augustinian Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín, told Vatican News. “It must reach wherever there is suffering and urgent need. That is why we ensure it is swift, practical and well coordinated, with particular attention to the poorest, so that they may experience the Holy Father’s closeness and tenderness—as the Church’s loving embrace, accompanying and sustaining them.”

The humanitarian assistance sent through the Dicastery has continuously supported the people of war-torn Ukraine since the outbreak of the conflict, as well as those in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

Building on years of constant solidarity while responding promptly whenever cries for help arise, Pope Leo has continued to extend comfort across every continent. His charitable outreach follows the geography of suffering—from Europe and the Middle East to Asia, Africa and the Americas—with an unwavering commitment and without distinction. It is a map marked by earthquakes and cyclones, droughts and floods, but also by everyday violence, abandoned children and families struggling simply to find enough food.

Being a welcoming presence in Europe

Even within Europe’s borders, behind the shop windows of a continent often portrayed as prosperous, lie stories of poverty and exclusion.

In Cyprus, a crossroads for Mediterranean migration routes, the Holy See has supported a Sant’Egidio project assisting asylum seekers with meals, hygiene kits and psychological support in reception centres.

Further east, in Georgia, aid has been provided to complete the construction of a home for disadvantaged boys in Tbilisi—a project in which Pope Francis had been personally involved and which Pope Leo is now bringing to completion.

The Sant’Egidio project in Cyprus, supported by the Dicastery for the Service of Charity

Bringing comfort to the Middle East and Asia

In Syria, where the war may have disappeared from newspaper headlines but not from people’s daily lives, the Christian community continues to endure pressure and silent threats. Through financial assistance from the Vatican to the local Caritas, Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Luigi Roberto Cona will in the coming days distribute 2,000 food parcels containing rice, cereals and cooking oil to families.

Advertisement

In Bangladesh, the Pope’s charity has reached two particularly painful situations.

The first is Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee camp, where more than one million Rohingya refugees continue to live in overcrowded bamboo shelters and plastic tents, trapped in years of statelessness. Continuing support that has lasted for many years, the Pope recently sent further practical assistance to people who, in that vast camp, no longer even have a country to call their own.

The second is the Diocese of Chattogram, recently devastated by ongoing severe flooding. Papal funding has supported the distribution of essential supplies, the restoration of agricultural activities, food security initiatives, assistance to schools and orphanages, and the repair of damaged homes.

Practical support also continues to reach Gaza and Lebanon. Last April, humanitarian aid was delivered through the local Apostolic Nunciature, including around 15,000 packs of essential medicines—among them antibiotics, antihypertensive drugs and painkillers—for populations exhausted by war.

The devastation in Bangladesh, where the population is being supported through the Dicastery for the Service of Charity

Helping Africa recover

Perhaps nowhere does the Bishop of Rome’s charity take on such diverse forms as in Africa.

In Burkina Faso, the Diocese of Ouahigouya received funding in early July to support a healthcare project for displaced people and those living in poverty, with particular attention to maternal and child health.

In Kenya, assistance sent through the Dicastery supports St Angela Embu Children’s Home, helping children who have been abandoned and live on the streets. There they find welcome, inclusion, regular meals and education.

In Madagascar, following the devastation caused by Cyclone Gezani on 10 February, the Archdiocese of Toamasina appealed for help. The Pope’s charitable fund is financing a multi-stage response, from the immediate distribution of food to rebuilding homes and restoring livelihoods.

In Zambia, severe drought in early July destroyed crops and left entire families in the diocese without food, including ninety schoolchildren who attend classes each day on empty stomachs. The Pope’s charity will help sustain them, caring for each of them as a father cares for his children.

One story from Tanzania perhaps illustrates better than any statistic what sacrifice and love for the Church truly mean. A man named Constantine was seriously injured and lost a leg after shielding his parish priest from an attempted assassination during Easter Mass. Unable to afford medical treatment, he appealed to Pope Leo, who ensured he received the care he needed, including a prosthetic limb that has allowed him to walk again.

Rebuilding in the Americas

Across the Atlantic, the Pope’s helping hand continues to reach those in need.

In Argentina, in the Diocese of Tucumán, violent storms last April severely damaged the dining hall and vocational training workshops of a centre serving around 450 vulnerable children and young people, many of whom would otherwise have neither a daily meal nor access to educational activities. Financial assistance sent promptly by the Pope through the Dicastery for the Service of Charity has enabled reconstruction work to begin.

Further north, in Haiti, where social instability and armed gang violence have made daily life almost impossible for much of the population, papal assistance is bringing relief to desperate families through food distribution and medical and hygiene support.

In Venezuela, the Pope’s charity has taken two complementary forms. One is the “Almuerzos Nutritivos para el Alto Orinoco” project, supported through the local Apostolic Nunciature, which will provide a nutritious lunch for six months to students at the school in Mavaca and the boarding school in La Esmeralda, serving largely Indigenous communities with extremely limited access to basic resources. For many of these children, this is the only full meal they receive each day.

Advertisement

At the same time, financial assistance continues to support people affected by the country’s recent devastating earthquake. Following the initial emergency contribution sent immediately after the disaster, further aid has continued to arrive to support long-term reconstruction. The latest contribution was sent this morning to the Archdiocese of Caracas as a sign of renewal and a seed of hope.

Beyond the need, uncover the causes 

Each of these initiatives reflects the commitment emphasised by the Pope’s Almoner: “Charity does not end with immediate relief.” It also calls us “to reflect on the causes of poverty, so as to help transform the injustices, rooted in sin, that generate exclusion and suffering.”

The Dicastery for the Service of Charity, Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín concludes, seeks to keep alive the awareness that “love is the key to Christian life. The urgency of charity, lived as a response to the Gospel, impels us every day to draw close to our brothers and sisters, sharing, as the Church, both their hardships and their hopes.”