The bishops of Costa Rica and Panama issued statements in solidarity with the Nicaraguan Church, which is suffering continued harassment from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
The Costa Rican leaders reiterated the need for the peoples of the Central American isthmus to live in “peace, the common good and social justice.”
Related news: Monsignor Rolando Álvarez: “They want the Church to stop talking”
«The bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Costa Rica stand in solidarity with the bishops of Nicaragua and with all the sister people of that nation. The message is sent after some information that arises in that country, and that also, the Nicaraguan bishops have expressed about the socio-political problem, the tension and atmosphere of anxiety that they live for their personal safety; in particular, at this time, by Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of Estelí”, mentions the statement from the Costa Rican Church issued on Saturday night, May 21.
Panamanian Church: Álvarez, persecuted for being a prophet
For their part, the bishops of Panama issued a statement expressing their solidarity with Monsignor Rolando Álvarez and the priest Harving Padilla, who are experiencing persecution and harassment by the police authorities of the Ortega regime.
“The Panamanian bishops stand in solidarity with our brother in the Episcopate, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez (…) at this time when he is experiencing persecution for being a prophet in the face of the difficult situation due to the socio-political crisis that the Nicaraguan people are experiencing,” says the note signed by the hierarchs Catholic of the canal country.
Church-State tension at peak
Relations between the Nicaraguan Church and the Ortega regime have reached their highest point of tension since the breakdown of communication channels between the two institutions that occurred in July 2018, when fanatical mobs from the Sandinista Front attacked Bishops Leopoldo Brenes and Silvio José Báez together with the then Apostolic Nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag in the Basilica of San Sebastián in Diriamba.
Since last Thursday, the police harassment that priests such as Bishop Rolando Álvarez had already been experiencing increased exponentially, and the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Post Office (Telcor) ordered subscription television companies to take Nicaragua’s Catholic Channel off the air. , the television station of the bishops of the country.
“What happens is that the government has always wanted a mute Church, it does not want us to speak, it does not want us to announce hope to the people, nor denounce injustice,” Bishop Álvarez told the media in the Las Colinas parish of Managua, from where he has begun a fast of prayer with water and serum until he is guaranteed the end of the persecution ordered by the Ortega regime.
