The Archdiocese of Managua, through the Justice and Peace Commission, rejects the persecution exercised by the Daniel Ortega regime against its religious and bishops. In a press release, the Catholic entity is sure that it will continue to denounce the “social structures of sin” and will always be accompanying “the people, the poor and the weak.”
«The church is always present in our joys and also in our duels, illnesses, poverty, absence, loneliness, fears and privations. It strengthens us, but its strength is not in human power, which is temporary, nor in material goods, which are ephemeral, but in the power of God that the Holy Spirit gives us,” says the 30th statement from the Catholic Church. .
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He warns that “the church will continue to announce the gospel, denouncing the social structures of sin, accompanying the people, especially the poor and the weak. The mission of the church will always provoke contradictions in this world where alongside the light there is also the darkness of evil».
Catholic leaders have served as mediators in the face of the social, political and economic crisis prevailing in Nicaragua. Given its role, the regime has launched a campaign of slander, offenses, political persecution and even economic limitations against the Church.
The priest of the San Juan Bautista church in Masaya, Harvin Padilla, is currently a victim of the siege exerted by Ortega, with police patrols, in collusion with people dressed in civilian clothes. During the night, since May 14, the surroundings of the church are guarded by riot police. “They are just there without saying anything, taking photos of you and laughing, some motorized people calling you a coup plotter and calling you a murderer because it only hints that it is psychological harassment,” said the religious in an interview with Article 66.
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The situation occurs days after the National Assembly, controlled by the government party, launched the threat of prosecuting priests. The deputies approved a report in which supporters of the dictatorial couple, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, asked to judge the religious leaders and confiscate their assets for having helped the victims of the 2018 repression, whom the regime calls “terrorists.” .
With 77 votes in favor, 11 against, zero abstentions and three present, the deputies approved the final report on the analysis of criminal legal norms presented by the Commission of Justice and Legal Affairs, in conjunction with the Commission of Peace, Defense , Government and Human Rights. So far the report has not been signed into law.
The religious assure that they remain concerned about “the situation of the country that we love as children of God, as Nicaraguans and as Christians. We join in prayer so that God transforms hard hearts into sensitive hearts, with love for others, free from feelings that prevent normality that leads to authentic social peace, “the statement ends.
