The Catholic bishops of Cuba expressed their solidarity with the Church of Nicaraguahis faithful and the released prisoners who were deported from that country to the United States.
In its “Message to the people of God”, published this Saturday, the Cuban bishops state that they feel “deeply united to the Bishops and to all the faithful of the Church of God in Nicaragua”, and they welcome the invitation of Pope Francis a week ago in the Angelus prayer.
MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD
Last Sunday, at the end of the Angelus prayer in the Plaza de San Pedro, Pope Francis expressed: “I have been very saddened by the news that comes from Nicaragua and I cannot help but remember here with concern the Bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor
— Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba (@obispos_cuba) February 18, 2023
Then, the pontiff said: “I have been very saddened by the news that comes from Nicaragua and I cannot help but remember here with concern the Bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, whom I love so much, sentenced to 26 years in prison, and also to people who were deported to the United States. I pray for them and that beloved nation, and I ask for your prayers.”
The Cubans expressed that they join Francis’ cry to “open the hearts of political leaders and all citizens to the sincere search for peace, which is born of truth, justice, freedom and love, and is achieved through the patient exercise of dialogue”.
They also urged the island’s Catholic faithful to pray for the suffering Nicaraguan Church and people.
In the last week, 317 Nicaraguans were stripped of their nationality, including Bishop Rolando Álvarez Lagos, sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison, after refusing to be exiled by the government of President Daniel Ortega along with 222 released and expelled political prisoners to the United States on February 9.
Gioconda Belli responds with poetry to the Ortega government, which withdrew her nationality
Bishop Álvarez, 56, had his citizen rights suspended for life, for crimes considered “treason against the homeland,” he points out. efe.
Among the 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners transferred to Washington on a plane chartered by the Joe Biden government, there are Nicaraguan opposition figures who have received humanitarian permission to remain on US soil for two years.
Efe/OnCuba.
