NEW HISTORY

After the changes which took place in Russia by 1991, the spiritual athmosphere in Leningrad became less stifling. The newly registered St. Catherine Catholic community started to strive for the return of the church. In February 1992 the city authorities settled on its return to the believers, and it became the second open Catholic church in St. Petersburg. By October 1992, the first stage of the restoration works was completed, and a temporary altar was installed. On October 4 the city's main Catholic church was blessed, and that was the first opening of a revived Roman Catholic church not only in the Northern Capital, but in the whole Russia since 1917. Father Eugene Heinrichs OP was appointed the parish priest. The restoration of the church required a large sum, and it was decided therefore to restore it by stages. The former sacristy was adapted for regular morning and evening Masses. A sunday school was opened in the parish. The crucifix rescued in 1938 by the parishioner Zofia Step??kowska was placed above the altar... Once again the Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria became ''the House of God, the House of Prayer'', as is inscribed above the portal of the church.

The restoration of the church interiors started with the Chapel of the Annunciation, which was solemnly opened in October 1998 in honour of the Appearances of the Mother of God in Fatima.

Palm Sunday of April 16, 2000 became a double holiday for the parishioners: the presbytery of the church was consecrated. The restoration of the presbytery had begun in 1998, immediately after the consecration of the Chapel of Our Lady of Fatima. Prior to this, the Masses were said in the small chapel.

On November 24, 2002, on the Solemnity of Christ the King, the parish celebrated the decennary of the revival of Masses in the Church of St. Catherine. Metropolitan Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz said the solemn Mass with many concelebrating priests, and during the mass the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary presented St. Catherine parish with a particle of the hallows of Blessed Bishop Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski, the founder of this congregation, who had served as the vicar of the Church of St. Catherine after his ordination in 1855. As the Metropolitan said, ''the Church of St. Catherine is re-arising, becoming once again the corner stone, resuming its beauty and majesty, and reminds us that it has always been the mother of all Catholic churches in Russia. Yet not the stones of the church is the most important thing, but the living stones, the faithful from whom the genuine church is built, and this church is growing.''

The official ceremony of the opening of the main nave of the church after many years of restoration was held in the morning of November 29, 2008. The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland have rendered substantial assistance to the restoration. In the evening of the same day, Archbishop Paolo Pezzi consecrated the main nave of the church. During the solemn Holy Mass, three seminary graduates were ordained.