The Ministry of Culture has not transferred St. Nicholas Church in Kyiv to the RCC community

The Ministry of Culture of Ukraine has not fulfilled its obligations to the Roman Catholic community of Kyiv regarding the transfer of St. Nicholas Church in the capital. Despite the fact that a Memorandum was signed between the Roman Catholic parish of St. Nicholas in Kyiv and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (now the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications), the Ministry has failed to fulfill its terms for the second time. By this document, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine undertook to return the church to the Catholic community no later than June 1, 2022. This is reported by the CREDO website.

«Three years ago, on November 5, 2021, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Kyiv Parish of St. Nicholas, in which the ICIP, in particular, undertook to return the church to the parish community by June 1, 2022. Having failed to fulfill any of the obligations of the Memorandum, at a pilgrimage celebration in honor of St. Nicholas, on December 6, 2023, the acting head of the ICIP publicly signed an annex to the aforementioned Memorandum, for the second time committing himself to return the church to the parish community, this time by May 1, 2024. We pray and believe that with your wisdom and determination we will be able to restore historical justice. For us, the return of the church is not just a legal formality, it is a matter of faith, spirituality and justice: to return to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s, thus overcoming, in particular, the consequences of the criminal communist regime,» reads the letter from the rector of the RCC parish, Pavlo Vyshkovsky.

Earlier, we reported that the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada and the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience discussed further steps to influence the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in connection with the entry into force of the scandalous Law No. 3894-IX “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Field of Activities of Religious Organizations,” popularly nicknamed the law “On the Prohibition of the UOC.” Following the meeting, it was decided to create a special commission and conduct an all-Ukrainian audit of the property of religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which the state apparently plans to expropriate in the near future.