The National Police prohibited the Catholic Church from holding a procession in honor of the Virgin of Fatima, which would take place this Saturday, August 13, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Managua.
The Archdiocese invited the faithful to participate on Saturday in an activity that they will carry out at 8:00 am directly in the Cathedral, given the police ban, “doing it peacefully to pray for the Church and Nicaragua”, in which they will pray the saint Rosario and will participate in the Mass officiated by Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes.
Initially, the religious activity was scheduled to leave at 7:00 am from the surroundings of the Cristo Rey church to the Managua cathedral, which ended an important demonstration for Catholics, at the end of a 30-month visit of the invocation of Fatima in Nicaragua and also on the occasion of the Marian Congress.
The police ban occurs, while dozens of officers keep under siege the city of Matagalpa, located in the north of the country, where for eight days they have held by force in the Episcopal House Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, and ten collaborators.
This is a stage of intensifying repression against the Catholic Church that has led to the imprisonment of two priests since last June, the closure of ten radio stations in the Diocese of Matagalpa, the siege of the Sébaco parish and finally the harassment directed at the bishop in an attempt to silence the voice of the religious who have questioned the Ortega regime for its constant human rights abuses.
Vice President Murillo, Ortega’s wife, has led the media attacks against the priests, whom they have disqualified by calling them coup plotters in the past, alluding to the fact that they supported the protests that called for a change of government in 2018, which were brutally crushed by the dictatorship that also has 190 political prisoners. Faced with the claim of the international community, the current Administration has said without proof that it is the object of an interventionist campaign.
In addition to offering fasting and prayer for the conversion of all this Friday, August 12, the Archdiocese of Managua directs that the Eucharist and the Gritería Chiquita, scheduled for Sunday, August 14 and Monday, August 15, be to ask that “Nicaraguans grow in faith and hope.”
