Albertine Brothers Helping Ukraine’s Poor

The current conflict and instability in Ukraine has pushed many Ukrainians into poverty. The Albertine Brothers are ministering to and helping Ukraine’s poor.

By ACN Staff

Viktor and his sons. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

Viktor and his sons, Wasiliej and Kola, are forced to cut up their floorboards to have fuel to heat their home. This is the grim reality of the poverty that so many Ukrainians face. As a result of the war and ongoing instability in Ukraine, Viktor and his wife, Helena, have no steady source of income. All the family can do is get by as best they can and hope that once the weather changes in Spring, work as farm labourers will become available.

Albertine Brothers food distribution. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

The Church is helping Viktor’s family. They are very grateful for the bread, tea, and soup they receive from the Albertine Brothers in the town of Zaphorizhya. Micha used to live in the tunnels of Zaphorizhya’s heating system. The Albertine Brothers took him in off the streets. Micha now bakes the bread that Viktor’s family and others receive.

Micha’s life has been turned around. He is now married and is a father. He explained what the Albertine Brothers did for him:

"In my case, everything changed because I got to know the Albertine brothers. They showed me a different way. Everything fell into place through prayer. Now I help the friars and bake bread for those who are poor or homeless, like I used to be." 

The Albertine Brothers are very active in ministering to and helping the homeless. Their goal is to help the homeless find their way back to an independent life. The brothers have space for 26 homeless, but during the winter cold, the number often swells to as many as 40. The brothers also help run a soup kitchen in the city’s cathedral for the hungry. Many of those who come are elderly pensioners who otherwise could not afford food due to rapidly rising food prices.

Outside their monastery, the brothers have built a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady. There are no other churches in the surrounding suburb. Many local people stop by the chapel and even kneel outside to pray when they pass by.

Thanks to the generosity of ACN benefactors, some years ago the Albertine Brothers were able to renovate the central heating system, install thermal insulation, get rid of the condensation on the walls, and carry out various other urgent repairs. ACN also helped replace the brothers’ old car and provided them with a more suitable vehicle to deliver food packages and carry our pastoral work.

Brother Wieslaw. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

This help provided to the needy by the Albertine Brothers is mirrored by countless other religious communities throughout Ukraine. Around one and a half million refugees in Ukraine live on less than €70 a month. Brother Wieslaw and the Albertine Brothers are happy to carry out this work. Brother Wieslaw explains:

"There are rich people here, but for a long time there was no Church, no place of love and sharing. That is why God must have brought us here. Through our prayer, through wearing the habit, through the cross and through our chapel, we try to change the world through the attitude of the other."  

The situation for the Church in Ukraine has improved significantly in the thirty or so years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Monsignor Szyrokoradiuk, Bishop of Odessa and Simferopol, former Apostolic Administrator of Kharkov, told ACN more:

"When we got our church back from the communists, in the 1990s, only seven people came to the first Holy Mass. Now the church is full on Sundays at each of the seven Masses. Even the Orthodox come and bring us relief goods, because the Catholic Church really helps the refugees and poor."