The Vatican's representative in Russia held a service Monday from the entrance of a garage-like structure next to a former Roman Catholic church that the tiny Catholic community in the city of Tula south of Moscow has been trying to return to the church, a Russian television network reported.
TVS television showed papal nuncio Archbishop Antonio Mennini leading a prayer, with a few dozen faithful gathered outside the small adjacent building Catholics in Tula use as a church. The small building stands in the shadow of a 19th century church that is being used as a criminal laboratory.
TVS said the Roman Catholic community in Tula numbers about 40 or 50 people and has been seeking the return of the church. It said the community invited Mennini to draw attention to their plight, and that he counseled patience. Nobody at the nuncio's office would comment on the report late Monday.
Thousands of churches of all denominations were seized by the state and destroyed or used for secular other purposes during the official atheism of the Communist era. The dominant Russian Orthodox Church has experienced a strong revival and regained control of many churches since the Soviet collapse, but other Christian denominations often run into barriers from authorities.
Roman Catholicism is not among the four faiths the government considers "traditional" for Russia, and relations are tense between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church, which complains Catholics are trying to convert people on its territory. The dispute escalated last year after the Vatican decided to upgrade its "apostolic administrations" in Russia to full dioceses.