About 500 million PLN was donated by the Polish Church to refugees from Ukraine

Catholic and Greek Catholic parishes in Poland collected and provided Ukrainian refugees staying in Poland with financial and material aid worth at least 209 million PLN, monks and friars donated – 29 million PLN, and nuns donated- 4.3 million PLN. The value of the support provided through Caritas Polska and diocesan Caritas is 241.3 million PLN – according to data presented on Wednesday by the Institute of Statistics of the Catholic Church and Caritas Polska.

The results of the study „Aid to refugees from Ukraine by Catholic parishes and orders in Poland” were presented at the headquarters of Caritas Polska in Warsaw on 12^th April. Data on the support provided so far was also presented by Caritas Polska.

The spokesman of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, Fr. Leszek Gęsiak SJ noted that the scale of the aid turned out to be unimaginable, and the mobilization of Poles for Ukraine involved the cooperation of millions of people all over Poland.

Polish parishes provided financial aid worth 103 million PLN. They provided gifts in kind worth 106 million PLN. They provided 282 thousand beds and they made 11 million meals. 125 thousand children were cared for; 94 thousand elderly or disabled; 125 thousand people were given psychological or therapeutic help and 52 thousand people were given help related to their job search. 752 thousand people were provided with legal aid, and 543 thousand. people were granted transport assistance.

Polish female congregations provided financial aid worth 1.8 million zlotys and they provided gifts in kind worth 2.5 million PLN. They provided 10 thousand beds and they made almost 380 thousand. meals. 2.4 thousand children were cared for and 473 elderly or disabled people were cared for. Almost 300 people were given psychological or therapeutic help and almost 500 people were given legal aid. In addition 4 thousand people were granted transport.

Polish male orders provided financial aid worth 16 million PLN. They provided gifts in kind worth 13 million PLN and they provided 27 thousand beds. They made 1.8 million meals. 18 thousand children were cared for and 7 thousand elderly or disabled people. 13 thousand people were given psychological or therapeutic help; 4.5 thousand people were given help related to their professional work; 25 thousand persons were provided legal aid and 23 thousand people were granted transport assistance.

In addition to parishes and female and male religious congregations, help from the first days of the war was provided by Caritas Polska and diocesan Caritas.

Summing up the assistance of Caritas Polska in the form of financial collections (100 million PLN), gifts in kind (136 million PLN) and the value of parcels as part of „Parcels for Ukraine” (5.3 million PLN), Fr. Marcin Iżycki has informed us that the total value of support from Caritas is almost a quarter of a billion zlotys – 241 million zlotys.

The study covered the period from the first day of the Russian aggression against Ukraine (24^th February) to 31^st March. They were devoted to the involvement of the Catholic Church in Poland on three levels: parishes, women’s congregations and men’s congregations. Support directed to the territory of Ukraine has not been investigated.