From the Cathedral of San Salvador, where the remains of the bishop and martyr of the Catholic Church, San Óscar Arnulfo Romero, rest, a group of Latin American bishops urged to raise “a deep and special prayer” for the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa Rolando Alvarez, sentenced in an express political trial to 26 years and four months in prison by the Ortega dictatorship in Nicaragua.
The president of the Latin American Episcopal Council (Celam) and archbishop of Trujillo, Peru, Monsignor Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte, took advantage of the opening of the Regional Assembly of the Synod of Central America and Mexico to raise a prayer for the first bishop to become a political prisoner of the Daniel regime Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
During a Eucharist, celebrated on the afternoon of February 13 in said Cathedral, the Archbishop of Trujillo urged those present to pray for Monsignor Álvarez and ask the Lord to “strengthen him, enlighten him, give him health and that spiritual strength that makes him everything regenerates. May God always protect you,” he expressed.
The bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí was sentenced for the alleged commission of the crimes of “conspiracy” and “cybercrimes” on Friday, February 10, one day after the prelate refused to board a plane that would transfer him to the United States along with 222 other exiled political prisoners.
The regime also ordered the removal of the religious leader of his nationality and all his civil and political rights —after declaring him a “traitor to the homeland”—, just as he did with the political prisoners released into exile on February 9.
Bishops from different Latin American countries show solidarity
The Episcopal Conference of El Salvador expressed its solidarity with the Church of Nicaragua and Monsignor Álvarez, while the bishops of Costa Rica rejected the sentence against the Catholic hierarch and also raised prayers to stop the persecutions in the country.
The bishops of El Salvador, “dismayed at the serious and recent events in the sister Republic of Nicaragua, express our pain, concern, solidarity and closeness with the bishops of Nicaragua, and with the entire Church in that beloved nation,” they indicated in a pronouncement.
Solidarity and prayer for Nicaragua – Episcopal Conference of Costa Rica: pic.twitter.com/U7tlnUxTXQ
— Julia Bolaños (@JULIA_Ma_) February 13, 2023
“United with the Pope, we raise our prayers for Monsignor Álvarez, for all the deportees stripped of their rights, for the Church in Nicaragua and for all the Nicaraguan people,” they added.
The Episcopal Conference of Costa Rica issued a statement in which “we express our deep pain at any act of injustice” and “we reject the sentence of 26 years in prison for our brother Monsignor Rolando Álvarez.”
In the same way, “we raise our prayer trusting in the Lord of peace, so that dialogue and respect may prevail for the benefit of all the inhabitants of this sister country, so that the persecutions cease and justice prevails,” the statement added.
The Costa Rican bishops also stated that “our closeness may come strong and let us pray without ceasing, while we ask for the maternal protection of the Immaculate Conception over Nicaragua.”
Jesuits praise Álvarez’s testimony
Likewise, the Conference of Jesuit Provincials in Latin America and the Caribbean (CPAL) praised “the testimony of freedom and commitment to the truth” of the Nicaraguan bishop.
“To Monsignor Rolando Álvarez our respect, admiration and fraternal affection, as well as our gratitude for his testimony of freedom and commitment to the truth,” stressed the CPAL in a document published on its website entitled: “Blessed are those persecuted because of the justice…”.
Álvarez, 56, is the first bishop to be arrested, charged and convicted since Ortega returned to power in Nicaragua in 2007.
The CPAL also celebrated the release of “all the people unjustly expatriated from Nicaragua by the Ortega Murillo dictatorship.” “Know that, from wherever you are, we join your fight for freedom and democracy,” he stressed.
Likewise, he said that they accompany with their prayer and solidarity “all the other people who continue to be unjustly detained or who are persecuted in Nicaragua.”
“To all the compañeros and compañeras who fear for their rights and their freedom, our understanding and our solidarity. We pray for all of you,” she remarked.
