Monsignor Silvio José Báez advocated in his Sunday homily dedicated to the power and consolation offered by prayer to God not to leave in oblivion those who have suffered the repression of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
The Auxiliary Bishop of Managua affirmed that prayer is the greatest contribution of Christians to social causes that comfort those who have been victims of injustice or violation of their rights.
“When we pray, we also welcome social pain in our hearts: the plight of the poor, the suffering of political prisoners and exiles, the anxiety of a persecuted Church and the humiliation of priests accused with hatred and irregularly. Of all these sufferings, it is not enough to speak, we must also turn them into prayer to make them reach God, in the form of a humble plea, an indignant question or a silent tear. Certainly ‘praying is not enough’, but for a Christian it is also true that ‘talking and acting is not enough’, he expressed in his homily from Santa Agatha parish in Miami, Florida.
The Ortega regime maintains a repressive escalation against the Catholic Church that has led to the imprisonment of Monsignor José Leonardo Urbina Rodríguez, from Boaco, and the priest from Nandaime, Manuel García, who has already been found guilty of the alleged crime of physical violence and violence. psychological – and the resurgence of the persecution against priests such as the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, and the parish priest of the San Juan Bautista Church in Masaya, Harving Padilla.
“That is why, on a social level, the greatest contribution that Christians can offer is our prayer. History is not only a stage on which human wills act, but also the place where God brings his kingdom of charity, peace and justice. By praying we make it possible for God to mysteriously fertilize history and transform society with our collaboration and through our actions>”, added Báez, who is in exile due to the siege of Sandinista fanatics.
The regime has maintained a frontal attack against bishops and priests of the Catholic Church, whom he describes as “terrorists” and “coup plotters” since 2018, when they raised their voices against the repression and massacre that left more than 325 murdered between April and September of that year, and their temples were used as a refuge for hundreds of students and citizens.
During the last four years, the regime has also launched smear campaigns against the Church and its priests, promoting physical and verbal aggression by Ortega fanatics, as occurred with the desecration of the Managua Cathedral during the body mass of the poet. Ernesto Cardenal, in March 2020.
