In 1990, Soviet authorities gave Father Tadeusz Pikus, a chaplain for Polish people working in the USSR, permission to offer Mass on the steps outside of the cathedral. Hundreds of people attended the outdoor Mass held in December in the bitter cold.
But it would be years until the cathedral building was returned to the Catholic Church.
Catholics in Moscow continued to attend Mass every so often on the steps of the cathedral, and later in its narthex, in the years that followed, until Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz sent a letter to President Boris Yeltsin in 1995 requesting the previously authorized transfer of the cathedral to the Catholic Church be expedited.
In 1999, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano reconsecrated the cathedral.
The following year, a statue of Our Lady of Fatima was crowned in the cathedral and a Eucharistic procession was held through the streets of Moscow.
Pope John Paul II prayed the rosary via teleconference with Catholics gathered inside the Moscow cathedral in March 2002.
On the 100th anniversary of the cathedral’s consecration, Benedict XVI said that the history of Moscow’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral is one of “redemption and suffering.” He described the cathedral as “a bright symbol of the strength of faith.”
Today Masses are regularly held in the massive neo-Gothic cathedral in Russian, Polish, English, and French with as many as 11 Masses held in the cathedral on Sundays.
A priest said in 2017 that around 150 people are baptized into Catholicism each year in Moscow.
Archbishop Paolo Pezzi, who leads the Catholic Archdiocese of the Mother of God at Moscow, welcomed “with great joy and gratitude” Pope Francis’ decision to consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25.
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The archbishop will offer Mass in the cathedral on March 25, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, and the congregation will watch and pray along with the live broadcast of the pope’s consecration from Moscow.
Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.
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