"They won't give it back in any way": Authorities invent another mechanism to block transfer of St. Nicholas Church to RCC ownership

The Office of the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Culture, and the Kyiv City State Administration continue to delay the process of transferring St. Nicholas Church in the capital to the local Roman Catholic community. This time, the formal reason for the refusal was the Hungarian government’s offer to restore the church, which was damaged in a rocket attack on the capital a few months ago. The capital’s Roman Catholics did not appreciate this “gesture of goodwill,” saying that in the two months since the attack, the government has not made any efforts, and therefore they have carried out most of the work on the restoration of the building on their own. This was reported by RISU.

“No action has been taken to cooperate with the parish of the church in this matter. Representatives of the parish, in particular the rector of the church, Father Pavlo Vyshkovsky, were not invited to discuss the restoration. It is worth noting that the religious community is the only user of this building and carries out priority work to save the building at its own expense. In addition, the Hungarian delegation, which had previously agreed to meet with representatives of the parish in the church, announced its cancellation the evening before the event due to changes in the program of the visit. The Hungarian side was surprised to learn that there were controversial issues regarding the church, which are currently being resolved in a legal manner. It also learned with regret that the church has not yet been handed over to the religious community and expressed readiness to cooperate in the issue of its preservation,” – the RCC in Ukraine said in a statement.

In addition, the Roman Catholics reproached the Ministry of Culture for promising to replace the broken windows with funds from UNESCO, but, according to the RCC, nothing has been done.

“After the Russian shelling, the parish did more in 2 days than the Ministry did in 2 months. The state, which reduced the church to ruins, does not inspire confidence as a partner in its restoration. If the Hungarians want to help, let them help the real owners of the church – the faithful,” – the parish noted.

Earlier, we reported that the struggle between the Roman Catholic community of Kyiv and the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine for St. Nicholas Church in Kyiv is reaching a new level. After the court ruled that the religious building should be transferred to the ownership of the religious community and the Ministry of Culture claimed that the RCC was already using the church, the Catholic community published an objection in which it pointed to the false information disseminated by the Ministry.