Bishop Carlos Herrera, in charge of the Diocese of Jinotega and president of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN) since 2021, despite the persecution experienced by the Catholic Church in the country, broke the silence in the face of Ortega’s abuses and called the authorities of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship, who placed loudspeakers outside the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista de Jinotega, where he was preparing to deliver the homily on the morning of Sunday, November 10.
«Before beginning this Eucharist, brothers, let us ask the Lord for forgiveness for our faults and forgiveness for those who do not respect the cult. “This is a sacrilege that the mayor (of Jinotega, Leónidas Centeno) and all the municipal authorities are doing,” Herrera stated before beginning the first prayer of the homily.
Related news: Monsignor Herrera, new president of the CEN, denounced the electoral farce and the “mortality” due to COVID-19
The president of the CEN also made it clear that he knows that his homilies are monitored by Ortega, telling the attendees to go “tell them, (because) they know the time of the mass.”
Also, he told those attending the mass to support these activities, which are located outside the temple in clear disrespect for the homily, which is why he encouraged them to also ask for forgiveness for them.
“And we also support because after the mass we are going to see each other there, I think that in this we are all failing God, so let us ask forgiveness for them and for us,” concluded the bishop.
The Catholic Church of Nicaragua, in the last six years, has been the victim of a unprecedented persecution in the countryeven forcing many priests to keep silent about all the arbitrariness they suffer for fear of reprisals.
Priests and bishops who dare to question the regime and its actions are detained, denationalized and even expelled to the Vatican in Rome; Their charities have been cancelled, their schools have been arbitrarily taken over, their accounts have been canceled and the media outlets they managed have also been closed and confiscated.
Nicaragua, recently, due to all these acts of violence that the Ortega regime has perpetrated and continues to carry out against the Church and the Catholic faithful, was ranked as one of the 18 countries in the world and the only one in Latin America in which Christians suffer a serious persecution, according to the report Persecuted and Forgotten?, prepared by the Pontifical Foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN, for its acronym in English).
