The Deacon and political exile Raul Antonio Vega Gonzalez, of the Diocese of Matagalpa, will be ordained a priest in the United States, as reported by Monsignor Silvio Baezauxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua, during the culmination of the mass this Sunday, April 30, from the Santa Agatha Church, in Miami.
The ordination of the new priest will be at six in the afternoon on Friday, May 12, in the Co-Cathedral of Saint Thomas More, in Tallahassee, Florida, in the southern United States.
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“I am going to be able to ordain a Nicaraguan deacon (…) from the Diocese of Monsignor Rolando Álvarez,” said the auxiliary bishop of Managua, who added that the new religious minister “practically did his diaconal ministry in El Chipote, and is one of the (222 political ex-reos) who came on the plane, and her ordination was already due, since November (2022) ».
«When I got here, he called me on the phone (…) and said: “Monsignor, it is my turn to be ordained, would you ordain me a priest?” I told him that it would be an honor and joy for me and for all the people of Nicaragua,” said the prelate.
He stressed that this “joyful and beautiful experience” belongs to a deacon of the Diocese (of Matagalpa) that the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship has wanted to destroy! But the Lord, in exile, brings forth a new priest from the Diocese Rolando (Álvarez)”, he affirmed very moved.
In a parenthesis, the prelate said that “if there is a moment that is exciting for a bishop, it is to ordain a priest, but in this case, the emotion is double because it is impossible not to remember my brother (Monsignor Álvarez) who is in prison, and I, together with Raúl Vega, want to offer this ordination to Nicaragua and to the Diocese of Matagalpa”.
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«I ask for your prayers for Deacon Raúl, he is an extraordinary person, those who were with him in prison have spoken very well of him (…) Raúl’s ordination is truly a gift from God, because God tells us that he is with us, with a country that is falling apart, because it gives us a priest, ordained by an exiled bishop,” Báez concluded.
Raúl Vega was one of the religious from Matagalpa whom the Ortega dictatorship imprisoned and sentenced for alleged conspiracy against the homeland, after the assault, on August 19, 2022, on the Episcopal Curia that ended with the kidnapping of Monsignor Rolando Álvarez.
On February 9, both Vega and the other priests, seminarians and laymen were exiled and declared stateless, along with more than 200 former political prisoners, after more than six were held captive in the cells of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ) in Managua, known as “El Nuevo Chipote”.
