The Cardinal of Honduras, Óscar Andrés Rodríguez, lamented this Sunday that many members of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua are accused “unfairly” by a “misadministered and manipulated justice system.”
“The brothers of the Church of Nicaragua unjustly taken to court with false accusations, how can those judges who know they are acting unfairly be happy,” Rodríguez emphasized in a Sunday homily.
“Do you think these judges will have inner peace?” asked the cardinal after referring to the arrest and subsequent conviction of members of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua.
“When they leave these positions, they will be able to sleep in peace, when their conscience is telling them: you are doing wrong, you are doing wrong,” said the religious, who said that those persecuted for the cause of justice, for misadministered justice, will be blessed. and manipulated.”
Rodríguez indicated that “those who are persecuted because of justice are blessed, those who act with justice respond to injustices and offenses, they help us to overcome evil with good.”
“The ambition of power, of glory”
According to the Honduran cardinal, a society based on “the ambition for power, glory and wealth does not tolerate justice, that is why those who want to be faithful to the Gospel encounter difficulties, but their reward will be the experience that God lives in them.” God reigns and God is his king.
Four Nicaraguan Catholic priests were found guilty of the alleged crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news to the detriment of the State of Nicaragua and society, reported the Legal Defense Unit.
The four prelates were found guilty along with two seminarians and a cameraman from the diocese of Matagalpa, by Judge Nadia Camila Tardencilla, head of the Second District Criminal Court of Managua, after four days of sessions in a trial that concluded this Thursday, indicated the Legal Defense Unit, made up of lawyers who defend the religious.
The judge found guilty the priests Ramiro Tijerino, rector of the Juan Pablo II University and in charge of the San Juan Bautista parish; José Luis Díaz and Sadiel Eugarrios, first and second vicar of the Matagalpa de San Pedro Cathedral, respectively, and Deacon Raúl Vega González
Also to seminarians Darvin Leiva Mendoza and Melkin Centeno, and cameraman Sergio Cárdenas.
In this way, in less than fifteen days, the Ortega regime adds seven religious sentenced to prison; the first was the Priest Oscar Benavides, also from the Diocese of Matagalpa. Two other priests were convicted in 2022, and Matagalpa Bishop Rolando Álvarez remains under impeachment.
The Prosecutor’s Office requested ten years in prison for the priests and the layman —five for each crime— and an 800-day fine for each one, equivalent to about 55,000 córdobas, a judicial source confided. The sentencing reading is scheduled for Friday, February 3 at 8:00 am
