Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, called for a “Sung to Nicaragua and God” for the second day tonight from the Episcopal Curia, where he is being held together with a group of church servants.
The religious invited the Catholic faithful to virtually join the activity that is transmitted through the social networks of the Diocese of Matagalpa. «We invite the Nicaraguan people to join us for a second sung at 8:00 pm to Nicaragua and to our blessed God, from inside our Episcopal Curia where we find ourselves held, but with inner strength and with joy and peace in the Lord. We will sing to Nicaragua and to our blessed Lord. Join through our digital platforms », reads the invitation.
Related news: Monsignor Álvarez continues in prayer for the police officers who are holding him
The exit of Monsignor Rolando Álvarez from the Episcopal Curia was blocked by five anti-riot agents of the dictatorship and a police patrol that stood in the garage of the religious building. The bishop tried to leave the site to officiate a mass at the San Pedro Apóstol cathedral, but he was prevented by police officers yesterday afternoon, August 4.
Despite the wave of repression imposed by Daniel Ortega against priests, Monsignor Álvarez has expressed that they continue to ask the “Lord of life and history to continue giving us the grace to renounce ourselves, to take up our cross and follow him.” For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. Of what use is it to one to win the whole world if he loses his life and that he can give one in return to recover it?
Relations between the Sandinista regime and the Nicaraguan Catholic Church have been marked by friction and mistrust in the last 43 years. Ortega has branded as “terrorists” the Nicaraguan bishops who acted as mediators of a national dialogue that sought a peaceful solution to the crisis that the country has been experiencing since April 2018.
He has also described them as “coup plotters”, accused of being accomplices of internal forces and international groups that, in his opinion, are acting in Nicaragua to overthrow him. In recent months, the Ortega dictatorship has launched a persecution against the Catholic Church and its main leaders.
At the beginning of May, the Police had initiated a wave of siege against the priests, among them is Father Harving Padilla, parish priest of the San Juan Bautista church in Masaya, Father Uriel Vallejos, parish priest in Sébaco, Matagalpa, as well as Father Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, the latter had to take refuge in a temple in Managua after several days of persecution by the Police.
