The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) and archbishop of Barcelona, Cardinal Juan José Omella, sent a letter to his Nicaraguan counterpart, Monsignor Carlos Enrique Herrera; to express his solidarity with the kidnapping of the bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
“In recent weeks, we have been following with concern the news about the serious situation that the Nicaraguan Church is experiencing in its mission of announcing the Gospel and the difficulties that the government is putting on this mission with the closure of the parish radio stations and the Canal Catholic of the Episcopal Conference and the obstacles put by the police forces for the access of the faithful to the temples and with the arrest of priests, “writes Cardinal Omella, who is also a close collaborator of Pope Francis and one of his referents within of the Spanish Episcopate.
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The Spanish religious leader adds that the kidnapping of Monsignor Álvarez is part of a greater offensive by the Ortega regime against the Church.
“This already serious situation (religious persecution in Nicaragua) has taken a further step with the arrest and kidnapping this morning of the Bishop of Matagalpa, Msgr. Rolando José Álvarez, together with the people who accompanied him in the episcopal curia. The circumstances and context of these arrests are truly worrying as they occur at a time of serious deterioration of human rights in the country”, points out the cardinal of Barcelona.
freedom for all
In his letter of solidarity with the Church and people of Nicaragua, Cardinal Juan José Omella asked the dictatorship for the freedom of Bishop Álvarez and “that of all the people” of Nicaragua.
“We also ask whoever is responsible to ensure the good of Nicaraguan citizens, the freedom of all their companions and, in general, of all the people plunged in these times in a painful lack of freedom,” Cardinal Omella exhorted.
The hierarch also asked Spanish Catholics to join their prayers with those of the Nicaraguan people before the Immaculate Conception of Mary “so that the desired freedom for prisoners may soon occur, as well as the restoration of freedom for the Church and for all dear Nicaraguan people.
For his part, the vice president of the Episcopate and archbishop of the Spanish capital, Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra, expressed his solidarity with the Nicaraguan Church via Twitter.
«The Church in Madrid joins the Church that walks in Nicaragua and prays so that it can carry out its mission in freedom. We pray for Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez”, wrote the Archbishop of Madrid on the social network Twitter.
It should be noted that the Nicaraguan community in Madrid will celebrate this coming September 4 a mass for the Church and the people of Nicaragua in the parish of the Most Holy Redeemer at 1 in the afternoon, which will be presided over by the Redemptorist priest José Miguel de Haro.
