The auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua, Monsignor Silvio José Báez, shared this Thursday with the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, United States, Timothy Dolan, the “painful” situation experienced by the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which is constantly attacked by the regime of Daniel Ortega y Rosario.
Through his social networks, the religious exiled in the United States since 2019, shared a photograph with the North American prelate, who showed solidarity with Nicaraguan Catholics and the church.
“Today I met the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, with whom I shared the painful situation that the people and the Church of Nicaragua are experiencing. He was very interested and supportive, he told me his closeness to our people and promised to pray a lot for Nicaragua, ”Bishop Báez wrote.
Relations between Catholicism and the Sandinistas have been marked by friction in the last 43 years, however it was from 2018 that government repression increased against the religious, when they were critical of the human rights violations committed by the regime. Ortega-Murillo against unarmed citizens.
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Today I met with the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, with whom I shared the painful situation experienced by the people and the Church of Nicaragua. He was very interested and supportive, he told me his closeness to our people and promised to pray a lot for Nicaragua. pic.twitter.com/1RvDGWXHJR
— Silvio José Báez (@silviojbaez) January 20, 2023
In fact, the Sandinista administration has accused the bishops of trying to carry out an alleged coup against their government, in the context of the demonstrations that broke out in April 2018 over controversial social security reforms.
2022 was also a difficult year for the Catholic Church, after the regime expelled the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag from the country, as well as 18 nuns from the Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
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In August of that year, the Sandinistas also kidnapped Bishop Rolando Álvarez, of the Diocese of Matagalpa, and he is currently being tried for the alleged crimes of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and “cybercrimes.”
It has also imprisoned nine priests and two collaborators from the Matagalpa diocese, shut down nine Catholic radio stations and removed three Catholic channels from subscription television programming, and prevented processions and pilgrimages.
