A statement released by the pope’s charity office said it “did not go on vacation” in the summer months, sending the vast amount of ice cream to two Roman prisons – Regina Coeli in the Trastevere district and Rebibbia in the outskirts of the capital.
The donation was among one of several “small evangelical gestures” made during the summer “to help and give hope to thousands of people in Rome’s prisons”, the statement added.
Keeping to an annual tradition, the Vatican charity office also took “small groups of homeless people, or those housed in shelters” to the sea or the lake, at Castel Gandolfo, “for an afternoon of relaxation and a dinner in a pizzeria”.
The person in charge of the charity office is the 57-year-old Polish cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the pope’s apostolic almsgiver, or Papal Almoner.
Under Pope Francis, the almsgiver has played an increasingly hands-on role in helping the city’s poor, with medical facilities and showers installed for the homeless at St Peter’s Square.
In May 2019, he made headlines after climbing down a manhole and breaking a seal to restore electricity to a building in Rome where 250 homeless people were living.
More recently the charity office has offered free COVID-19 tests and vaccinations to Rome’s homeless and poor.
This summer has been one of the hottest on record in Italy, with the Sicilian city of Syracuse recording temperatures of 48.8°C in August.
