The Dicastery for Bishops of the Vatican appointed Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón as administrator “ad Omnia” (to all) of the Diocese of Estelí, ecclesiastical sources confirmed this Wednesday, January 11 to the informative magazine CSI Mosaic.
The diocesan clergy of Estelí made official through social networks the appointment of Valle Salmerón, clarifying that Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, who is in captivity and is being prosecuted by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, continues to be the Apostolic administrator of that circumscription ecclesiastical and “we continue to invite prayers for him”.
Monsignor Álvarez has been in captivity since August 4, 2022, when he was initially forced to confine himself with 11 other people in the Matagalpa Episcopal Residence. Of these, three priests, a deacon, two seminarians and a photojournalist are imprisoned in El Chipote, the Police prison in Managua, and are being prosecuted for the alleged crimes of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news through information and communication technologies to the detriment of the Nicaraguan State and society”.
Bishop Álvarez and Matagalpino priest Uriel Antonio Vallejos, parish priest of the Jesús de la Divina Misericordia Parish in Sébaco, Matagalpa, who is in exile, are accused of these same alleged crimes. Meanwhile, by decision of a judge, Monsignor Álvarez must face a trial on a still undefined date.
The decision of the Dicastery for the bishops to appoint Father Frutos was known by the clergy of Estelí in the regular meeting that they hold at the Philosophy Seminary.
The Dicastery for Bishops is the body of the Roman Curia that makes the selection of new bishops before papal approval.
Feast of the Lord of Esquipulas without pilgrimage in Matagalpa
Meanwhile, in Matagalpa, the traditional and massive pilgrimage to the Diocesan Sanctuary of Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas, in the municipal seat of Esquipulas, this year has been prohibited, so religious celebrations were limited to praying the novena in the temple, a vigil scheduled for Saturday the 14th and three masses for Sunday the 15th of January.
For this year, the novena to Our Lord of Esquipulas is prayed every day at 5:00 pm in the parish temple that was built in 1723 by a group of inhabitants of the community that was then known as Caulapa.
A vigil is scheduled for January 14, while on the 15th, which is the day of solemnities for the so-called Black Christ, as it is on Sunday there will be three masses: at 6:00 and 10:00 in the morning and at 5:00 p.m. :00 in the afternoon, confirmed an ecclesiastical source.
The pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lord of Esquipulas began in 1995 during the episcopate in Matagalpa of the current Archbishop of Managua and Vice President of the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Leopoldo José Brenes Solórzano.
It is one of the events with the greatest participation of parishioners in the Diocese of Matagalpa. Every year the small city of Esquipulas attends between 30,000 and 45,000 pilgrims who walk an average of 15 kilometers from three different parts of the department to reach the Diocesan Sanctuary of Cristo Negro.
Some leave from the town of San Dionisio, others walk from the El Rodeo community in the municipality of Muy Muy, while others leave the El Cacao community in the municipality of Darío.
