The Cardinal of Nicaragua, Leopoldo Brenes, returned this Sunday to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua, of which he is archbishop, after almost four months of absence, and affirmed that the priests “cannot be silent”, in a country where the clergy have been critical of the Government of Daniel Ortega.
“Pray for me, pray for our priests, so that we are promoters of this kingdom (of Jesus Christ), and that as the apostles said: we cannot keep silent about what we have seen and what we have heard,” said Brenes, who had not returned to the Managua Cathedral since last July 31, when it commemorated a year of the attack on the temple that burned a historic image of the Blood of Christ and then contracted covid-19.
Since July 2018, Ortega has accused the episcopate of having directed an alleged coup against him, of which he has not yet shown evidence, and after which Catholic churches have suffered multiple desecration in different cities of Nicaragua, including the cathedral of Managua in 2020, which the National Police classified as an accident.
The bishops have not denied that during the 2018 anti-government protests, parish priests opened their doors for protesters to escape armed attacks by police and civilians, which according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) left at least 355 dead.
That same year, the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference (CEN), then chaired by Brenes, served as a mediator in a dialogue between the protesters and the Government, which failed when the authorities carried out the so-called “Operation Cleaning” against the opponents, which left dozens of dead in various cities, according to reports from humanitarian agencies.
“Do not tire of the dark”
In 2014, seven years after Ortega returned to power, the CEN warned him of a general disagreement in Nicaragua against the Sandinista government, and invited him to rethink his leadership style, a recommendation that the president ignored.
“That is why my exhortation, that we do not tire, even in the midst of darkness and in the midst of tensions, of announcing this kingdom, an extraordinary kingdom, the kingdom of Jesus Christ, which has its base in the heart and which bears fruit” , the cardinal stressed, in his Sunday message.
On the 7th, Ortega was re-elected for the third time in a row, in elections that the opposition, the victims of the 2018 armed attacks, and part of the international community, described as “illegitimate.”
Eleven days later, Brenes ceased to be president of the Episcopate, because for “a third term there is no re-election in the CEN,” explained the same cardinal.
Álvarez: “Kingdoms end up breaking down”
During the homily this Sunday, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez Lagos, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, He said that the “kingdoms that are founded under arms, intimidation, threats and blackmail, sooner or later break down.”
“For believers to reign is to serve, only in this way can we be attentive to the cry of the poor weak, the marginalized; There are many causes, not only now, that have impoverished us. We are not poor because we had to be poor, but because since there is a political decision not to distribute wealth equitably, the person is subjected to being poor, ”stressed the bishop, who is also an apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí. .
“The kingdom of God is based on love, reconciliation, forgiveness, fraternity, solidarity, non-exclusion, non-discrimination, which are conditions for sustainable human development and respect for human rights. The kingdom of God resides in hearts ”, he highlighted in the homily held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, in Estelí.
Báez: “Nothing violent is eternal”
Monsignor Silvio José Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua, pointed out that “The kingdom of Jesus is not violent nor is it imposed with violence, because nothing violent is eternal. The kingdom of Jesus is eternal, those who impose themselves by force are already defeated, those who believe themselves strong because they are aggressive and humble others, the only thing they do is show their weakness, the powerful who snatch freedom from the peoples and the they dominate because they have weapons, they exercise illegitimate power that sooner or later will end ”.
“Those who prefer power to service, those who are insensitive will never know the truth, those who have made corruption a lifestyle are condemned to never know the truth,” said Báez in his homily from Santa Agatha Church in Miami. , USA.
“For the kingdoms of the world it is essential to win in the kingdom of Jesus; the greatest is the one who serves and cares for the lives of others, Jesus never wanted to have power over anyone. In the kingdom of Jesus there are no legions or swords, ”said the religious.
