The Nicaraguan Cardinal, Leopoldo Brenescalled this Sunday for a “change of direction” in the Central American country, which has been going through a sociopolitical crisis since 2018,
Brenes, who along with the rest of the Nicaraguan Episcopate has been accused by President Daniel Ortega of trying to overthrow him, qualified his call with biblical references, during the Sunday mass that he presided over in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua and which was broadcast on social networks.
“John the Baptist comes to make that call, a call to a conversion, which means: change of direction, reflect in our lives what I have that prevents me from walking seeing the Lord,” said the cardinal, whose country is divided among those who support Ortega and those who do not sympathize with the Sandinista leader.
The crisis in Nicaragua began in 2018, when a series of armed attacks against massive anti-government protests left at least 355 dead, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), of which the president acknowledges 200, arguing that defended against an alleged coup d’état.
Additionally, the IACHR reports more than 250 political prisoners, among opponents, critics of Ortega and independent professionals, whom the president refuses to release, despite the resolutions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CourtHR) and the pleas of family members.
“In the Lord’s vineyard there is everything, there are some who go with a willing heart, there are others who do not,” recalled Brenes, who did not make direct remarks.
Brenes recounted a scene in which John the Baptist calls a group to “change”, some agree, “but the other two say ‘no’, in a spirit of arrogance”.
“That person who says ‘I have no sin’ is perhaps committing the greatest sin of arrogance, believing himself to be better,” the cardinal stressed.
Catholic Church suffers persecution from the dictatorship
Likewise, he called for getting rid of “those things that exist in our lives and that prevent us from living truly happy, removing hatred, removing enmities, removing grudges, because many times these attitudes make us sick and make us lose peace.”
The Catholic Church It is a religion considered “persecuted” in Nicaragua, as different bishops and priests have mentioned on different occasions.
This year, the Sandinista government expelled the apostolic nuncio from the country Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag and 18 nuns from the Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Last August, priests from different dioceses in Nicaragua asked the Government to “cease the persecution of the Catholic Church”, in the midst of different actions that led to the arrest of more than a dozen religious, including some seminarians, and the Bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, both in the north, Rolando Alvarez. Relations between the Sandinistas and the Catholic Church in Nicaragua have been marked by friction and mistrust in the last 43 years.
With 58.5% of believers, the Catholic Church is the religion with the most followers in Nicaragua, according to the latest national census.
Nicaragua’s crisis worsened with the 2021 general elections, when Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, were re-elected to their posts, in a process criticized because seven of their potential rivals were arrested and two fled into exile.
Bishop Báez criticizes “breed of vipers”
For his part, he Auxiliary Bishop of Managua, Silvio José Báezdenounced from exile the powerful who manipulate religion and called them a “breed of vipers”, while he spoke out for a religion that watches over human dignity.
“The political powers that uphold lies with cynicism, manipulate religion for their own interests, deify themselves with arrogance and cruelly impose themselves on the people, are also a “breed of vipers”, said the Carmelite religious during his homily, in which he analyzed the biblical figure of John the Baptist.
Báez officiated the mass this Sunday, December 4 from the Santa Agatha parish, in Miami, United States and highlighted his prophetic voice in the face of power, a strong voice that gives hope to the downtrodden by telling the truth with courage.
“A single calm but firm voice that revives hope and does not allow itself to be intimidated by anyone, produces a surprising effect, even if it is only a voice in the desert. How necessary are the voices today that call us not to settle for mediocrity and invite us to straighten out our personal lives and social coexistence according to God’s will! How necessary are the voices that fearlessly shout the truth in the name of God and invite without failing to have hope!” added the bishop.
