This was stated by the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Patriarch Sviatoslav, in an address to the priests of the Archdiocese of Kyiv during a Zoom-assisted meeting.
This is reported by the Information Department of the UGCC.
The main day of the action – November 15, falls on the day of the poor, which was established by Pope Francis, but the action will continue for the next months.
"We are not referring to a one-time case, but to initializing this type of social service in our parishes as a whole. In other words, the fundraisings will be carried out constantly and indefinitely. As it is likely that the issue of giving food to and meeting the basic needs of our people will be one of the big social challenges this winter and next spring," His Beatitude Sviatoslav believes.
According to him, food banks will be formed at each parish before the Day of the Poor. He added that many UGCC parishes in Ukraine are already doing this, and a whole movement has already formed in western Ukraine.
"We ask everyone to bring food that can be stored in the temple. Cereals, pasta, butter, which could be collected and, if necessary, provided to the hungry. I want this action to become a concrete way to show our faith in the difficult circumstances of the pandemic of late 2020," the spiritual leader of Ukrainians said.
The Head of the UGCC noted the sad statistics in Ukraine: "Only state statistics officially states that a quarter of the population of Ukraine is below the poverty line. Eighty percent of pensioners are below this line. The number of unemployed people in Ukraine is also growing and approaching two million."
In his opinion, this means that we are entering a period when the consequences of the pandemic will be felt not only in the sanitary field but also in social life.
We will add that in one of the churches of the UGCC Lviv residents are already being asked to join the action "Feed the Poor".
As they told at the Church of the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos to the temple, the collection is dedicated to the day of the poor, which this year was proclaimed by Pope Francis. This is reported by the Spiritual Greatness of Lviv.
"You can bring food to the lower class of the church, as well as indicate information about people in need of help (neighbors, older people, acquaintances, homeless people with a permanent place of stay near you, etc.) in the vestibule of the Church of Presentation (5 Chukarina Street, Lviv).
They ask you to bring products exclusively for long-term storage. A list of possible products is provided in the poster.
As RISU has reported, the Catholic Church started celebrating World Day of the Poor for the first time on November 19, 2017. Pope Francis announced his celebration at the end of the Jubilee of Mercy. The task is to call on the entire Christian community to extend their hand to the poor, weak, and all those whose dignity has been trampled on.