Kyiv’s iconic St. Nicholas Church returns to Catholic hands for 50 years

After decades of legal disputes, delays and competing claims, Ukraine’s Roman Catholic community has received the right to use Kyiv’s historic St. Nicholas Church for the next 50 years, under an agreement signed with the state.

The church, a national cultural landmark confiscated during the Soviet era, remains state-owned but will now function primarily as a parish church.

The agreement marks the most significant step so far toward restoring Catholic life in one of Kyiv’s most recognizable churches, even as it falls short of full restitution — the return of the church to Catholic ownership.

OSV News reached Father Pavlo Vyshkovsky, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate and pastor of St. Nicholas Parish, on Jan. 9, as Kyiv faced a hard night of Russian attacks.

“We had another very difficult night,” the priest said. “There is no electricity, no water, no heating.” Despite the emergency conditions in the capital, it was important for him to comment on what the 50-year agreement means for the parish and for Catholics in Ukraine.

“For years we could not even register our legal address at the church,” Father Vyshkovsky told OSV News. “That meant we had no direct contracts for electricity or water and paid several times more than we should have. With this agreement, that finally changes,” he said.

St. Nicholas Church, built between 1899 and 1909 in the neo-Gothic style by architect Vladyslav Horodetskyi, is one of two Roman Catholic churches in Kyiv built before 1917, when the city was part of the Russian Empire in its final decades, and before the October Revolution of 1917 that swallowed Ukraine as one of the Soviet republics.

Closed and confiscated by Soviet authorities in 1938, the church was later converted into a concert hall and placed under state administration. For decades, it remained one of the most visible symbols of unresolved church property disputes in Ukraine after regaining independence in 1991.

The church has faced disrepair since 2009, and a fire in 2021 further damaged it, with the Dec. 20, 2024, Russian rocket attack on the Ukrainian capital only adding to a pile of repair needs for the historical church.

Although the Ministry of Culture promised to transfer the church to the local faithful, it has not happened for years — with the parish forced to function in a legal gray zone, dependent on the state cultural institution formally assigned to the building.

Church leaders told OSV News the agreement provides long-sought legal clarity, allowing the parish to protect the building amid war-related disruptions and plan repairs, such as installing the permanent heating system, as parishioners are now forced to celebrate many Sunday Masses in freezing temperatures.

Repairs to the roof and windows are among the most urgent needs, although church authorities acknowledge that the building ultimately requires a complete renovation from foundation to roof.

Bishop Vitalii Kryvytskyi of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kyiv-Zhytomyr, said the agreement should be seen both as a legal breakthrough and as evidence of the limits that still shape church-state relations in post-Soviet Ukraine.

“Signing the agreement is an important step because the church urgently needs renovation,” Bishop Kryvytskyi told OSV News. “Ukrainian law does not provide for full restitution of church property when it is classified as a national cultural monument. That is why permanent ownership or even permanent use has not yet been possible in this case.”

“We do not consider the issue resolved,” he added. “The next 50 years are needed not only for essential repairs, but also to find a path toward a final solution that allows the church to serve God and the faithful, as it was built to do more than a hundred years ago,” Bishop Kryvytskyi emphasized.

The bishop said the prolonged struggle over St. Nicholas Church cannot be separated from Ukraine’s broader post-Soviet legacy and the unfinished process of returning religious property.

“After the dynamic return of churches to religious communities in the 1990s, there was a long period of stagnation,” he said. “Unfortunately, today these matters are often handled by the grandchildren of those communists who once confiscated churches, and they have not freed themselves from Soviet ways of thinking. Situations like this show that the process of decommunization is still unfinished, even after 35 years of Ukraine’s independence.”

For Father Vyshkovsky, the agreement also means the parish can finally take formal responsibility for the church. “For years we were praying here, but legally we could not protect the building, choose contractors or even decide who could work inside the church,” he said. “Now, for the first time, we can truly take care of it.”

Bishop Kryvytskyi told OSV News the case of St. Nicholas Church must also be seen in the context of Ukraine’s current struggle. “This is not only about a building,” he said. “It is part of a mental war. Russia wants to push Ukraine back into a new version of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is resisting — with God’s help and with the help of people of goodwill.”

The agreement takes effect as Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine continue to face regular Russian attacks and disruptions to daily life.

Russian forces destroyed a large energy facility in Ukraine’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, the mayor of the city, Ihor Terekhov, said Jan. 15, according to The Guardian. A relentless barrage of attacks by Moscow is targeting Ukrainians amid freezing winter temperatures, adding darkness and cold into the list of security concerns.

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