The government of Daniel Ortega expelled the president of the Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Enrique Herrera, from Nicaragua after the priest criticized the ruling party during a homily, the main media outlets in the Central American country reported on Thursday.
Herrera, 75, was reportedly sent to Guatemala on Tuesday without further details being known about his whereabouts or situation, according to the investigative media Confidencial and the newspaper La Prensa. Guatemala previously hosted a group of former political prisoners Nicaraguans with the mediation of the United States.
The Ortega administration has not made any public statements about this fact so far. The Voice of America He requested comments from Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, prelate of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, but has not yet received a response.
Herrera’s criticism against the ruling party took place during a homily on Sunday, November 10, 2024, often interrupted by music from a nearby ruling party event organized by the Jinotega Mayor’s Office. The bishop complained that the noise made it difficult for the faithful to hear the mass and therefore hindered its celebration.
“Let us ask the Lord for forgiveness for our faults and also for those who do not respect the cult, right, asking Him because this is a sacrilege that the mayor and all the municipal authorities are committing, and go tell them because they know the time of the mass,” Herrera said. The comment was recorded in a live broadcast on Facebook that was later deleted.
Monsignor Herrera served as bishop of the diocese of Jinotega and was appointed as the new president of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN) for the period 2021-2024.
The expulsion of the religious from Nicaragua adds to other actions of the Ortega government, which maintains a confrontational stance against the Catholic Church, which it accuses of having tried to carry out a coup d’état in 2018, amid anti-government protests.
Ortega has expelled more than a dozen priests, but also missionaries, and every critical voice of the Church, among them Bishop Rolando Álvarez, whom he kept in jail for more than a year.
Pope Francis has compared Daniel Ortega’s government to the “Hitler dictatorship” of the last century due to actions against the clergy.
“With great respect, I have no choice but to think about an imbalance in the person who directs [el país]”said the pope during an interview.
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