The auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio José Báez, pointed out this Sunday, August 28, that “those who today boast of being arrogant in power and humiliate their peoples with jail, death or exile, have already signed their condemnation. Since they “forget that ‘only God is powerful’ and that ‘despotism and cruelty close the way to God and to his grace’.”
During his homily at the Santa Agatha parish in Miami, where he has been in exile since 2019 due to a request from Pope Francis, Monsignor Baez He rejected the arrogance of “the powerful” in Nicaragua and called for humility.
“The dictators do not realize that their arrogance, their arrogance, their ethical blindness and their inability to rectify in favor of their peoples, is their greatest weakness,” warned Monsignor Báez. “How many great, proud, men and women of power have ended up in anonymity, in misery or in prison,” he continued paraphrasing Pope Francis.
The message from the auxiliary bishop of Managua comes at a time when the Daniel Ortega regime is holding hostage the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez, seven priests and two seminarians, as part of an escalation of repression against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua. In addition, on March 6 of this year, the government expelled the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Sommertag from the country.
For Báez, “those who have power in our countries and the fanatical or interested people who support them should take advantage of the last drop of humanity that remains in their hearts to reflect, take responsibility for their crimes and begin to give in, returning their peoples the dignity and freedom that have been stolen from them”.
The bishop also appreciated that “it is never too late” to welcome God through humility. “Exercising power – said Benedict XVI – is a duty that requires asking each day: have I lived up to it?”. The greater the power, the greater the responsibility, and the more responsibility one has, the more humility is required. Let’s not forget it. The humble person is not weak, he is strong. Only the force of humility will be able to change the world,” he continued.
Brenes asks “to trust in the Lord, not in strategies”
Meanwhile, in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes asked the congregation to trust “fully in the Lord, not in strategies, not in human means, not in the logic of this world, not in calculations. , not in the big speeches, not in the applause, no”.
Brenes has been the only interlocutor who has been able to talk with Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, since last August 5, when the regime’s police made his house arrest official in the Matagalpa curia, and after his kidnapping on the morning of August 19.
Cardinal Brenes met with Monsignor Álvarez, at his home in Managua, where he is under house arrest, and noted in a statement that his “physical condition is deteriorating”, but his “heart and spirit are strong”. Álvarez expressed his confidence in everyone’s prayers in the face of the “difficult situation we are experiencing in ecclesial communion.”
“We hope that reason, as well as respectful understanding, will open up a solution to this critical and complex situation for everyone,” reads the letter, in which Brenes called on the people to continue praying for Christ to intercede for his flock.
Faced with this situation, the Pope Francis expressed to the angelus hour last Sunday, August 21, his “concern and pain for the situation created in Nicaragua that involves people and institutions.”
“I follow the situation in Nicaragua with concern and pain. I would like to express my conviction and my hope that, through an open and sincere dialogue, the foundations for a respectful and peaceful coexistence can continue to be found,” the pontiff said.
However, a week after Pope Francis’ message the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has not yet ruled on the pope’s call for dialogue.
Cardinal Brenes was summoned by Pope Francis to attend a meeting this weekend, in which almost 300 cardinals from around the world will participate, to reflect on the new Apostolic Constitution, a meeting that is taking place in Rome, after the investiture of twenty new cardinals. However, the Nicaraguan cardinal could not participate because his mother, Lilliam Solórzano, is in very poor health.
The escalation against the Church
The kidnapping of Monsignor Álvarez and 10 priests in recent months is the latest chapter in a 43-year history of disagreements between the Catholic Church and the Ortega regime.
Ortega has described as “terrorists” the Nicaraguan bishops who acted as mediators of a national dialogue that sought a peaceful solution to the crisis that Nicaragua has been experiencing since April 2018.
The situation in Nicaragua has worsened after the disputed votes last November in which Ortega was re-elected without political competition for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president.
In the last month, the Ortega regime has also closed down a dozen radio and television channels that belonged to the Catholic Church, expelled 18 Missionaries of Charity from the country, and intensified the siege and persecution of religious leaders.
