The Catholics of the Nicaraguan city of Masaya celebrated Saint Michael the Archangel on Monday without taking him out in procession to the streets due to a police ban, according to Efe.
Dozens of Catholics from Masaya celebrated the “descent” of San Miguel de Arcángel, in the presence of police officers who went to the temple to make sure that the parishioners did not take a replica of the saint to the streets.
The National Police prohibited the processions in honor of San Jerónimo, patron saint of the city of Masaya, and San Miguel Arcángel, alleging reasons of public security, the Archdiocese of Managua reported last Saturday.
Masaya, located 28 kilometers southwest of the capital, is a former Sandinista stronghold that rebelled against the government of President Daniel Ortega in April 2018 in the framework of anti-government demonstrations that broke out over controversial social security reforms, and that then they became a demand for the president to resign because he responded to force.
During the Eucharist this Monday, the head of the departmental police of Masaya, Juan Valle, accompanied by agents, entered the San Miguel Arcángel church and spoke with the priest Ramón López, in charge of the parish, to remind him that they could not leave with the saint to the streets.
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Dozens of riot police officers were posted on the outskirts of that parish, aboard six patrol cars.
That church is the same one that was administered, during the anti-government demonstrations that broke out in April 2018, by the exiled priest Edwin Román, nephew of the Nicaraguan hero Augusto C. Sandino, and a strong critic of the Ortega government.
Román is based in Miami (USA), as is the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Báez, after having an outstanding performance in helping persecuted people after these popular protests against the Ortega government.
ASK FOR DIVINE INTERSECTION
Given the ban on processions, the Archdiocese of Managua, Masaya and Carazo invited “devotees and promisers” of San Jerónimo and San Miguel Arcángel, “to keep in mind that faith and devotion are a treasure that we carry in our hearts and since there we can pay due homage with the strength of the ancestral heritage in our communities”.
He also asked Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Jerome and the “blessed virgin Mary, mother of the Church and queen of peace, to intercede and listen to prayers, to heal us from all evil with God’s medicine,” according to his statement.
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The suspension of these Catholic processions becomes the most recent chapter of a particularly convulsive last year for the Catholic Church of Nicaragua with the Government of Ortega, who has branded the leaders as “coup plotters” and “terrorists.”
This year, the Sandinista government expelled from the country the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag and 18 nuns from the Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
He also imprisoned Bishop Rolando Álvarez and seven priests for various reasons, closed nine Catholic radio stations, and removed three Catholic channels from subscription television programming.
The Police also entered by force and raided a parish, preventing parishioners from receiving the Eucharist inside the temple and besieging other priests in their churches, among others.
Relations between the Sandinistas and the Nicaraguan Catholic Church have been marked by friction and mistrust in the last 43 years.
The Catholic community represents 58.5% of the 6.6 million inhabitants of Nicaragua, according to the latest national census.
