The auxiliary bishop of Managua, Monsignor Silvio José Báezasked to pray that “the hearts of tyrants” be softened and freedom of Monsignor Rolando Alvarezbishop of the diocese of Matagalpa, and the more than 200 political prisoners in Nicaragua and the rest of the world this Christmas.
Based on the gospel of this December 11 that recounts the imprisonment of the prophet John the Baptist, the Catholic hierarch asked for the freedom of the world’s political prisoners, while urging to maintain faith in God.
«The powers of this world cannot stand brave people who embody the truth and spread freedom. The imprisonment of Juan Bautista is not a thing of the past. Today, in many of our countries, there are still people deprived of their liberty, subjected to psychological and physical torture, whose human dignity is not respected and who are unjustly sentenced to loneliness and suffering,” denounced Báez from the Saint Agatha, in Miami, United States.
The religious leader, who was forced to leave Nicaragua to protect his safety and life, recalled that there are imprisoned political leaders and human rights defenders, “whose crime has been to dream and fight for a better country,” alluding to the regime of Daniel Ortega, who has around 235 people deprived of liberty for political reasons or because of their beliefs, including some eleven religious.
“There are also priests, laymen and bishops, imprisoned for being witnesses and prophets of the gospel. I think in a special way, affection, of the Catholic bishops Joseph Zen90 years old, detained by the Hong Kong authorities, and undoubtedly my beloved brother Monsignor Rolando Jose AlvarezBishop of Matagalpa, deprived of his liberty by the dictatorship in Nicaragua for more than four months,” declared Monsignor Báez in his homily.
He asked that “on the road to Christmas we are not indifferent” to this situation and that God protect and give health to the incarcerated.
For Bishop Báez it is useless to ask the authorities to release political prisoners, so he urged to ask “the Lord to soften the hearts of tyrants so that they release them immediately and without conditions.”
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“Their relatives have the right to have them with them, their children need them, society will be hurt while they are detained. The people of God suffer the absence of their imprisoned pastors and need their warm presence and their prophetic voice. We will not be able to have a joyous Christmas while they are suffering from this injustice,” he added.
Likewise, he invited the Nicaraguan people to have faith in God’s designs, despite the doubts that flourish when they do not obtain immediate results in their wait for freedom. “This is the path of faith (…) In God we can trust, even if we do not understand it,” he said.
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Therefore, he called to celebrate Christmas “with amazing gratitude for the mysterious, humble and merciful presence of God, who did not want to change the world with a magic wand.”
«(God) has wanted rather to intertwine his breathing with ours so that we breathe the fresh air of his tenderness, so that we feel loved and are capable of loving, so that we are strong to hope against all hope and collaborate with him to make the most humane and dignified life”, he concluded.
