Approximately two thousand parishioners were present at the Managua Cathedral where the conclusion of the National Marian Congress was held and the pilgrim image of the Virgin of Fatima that toured Nicaragua for 31 months was said goodbye.
The parishioners carried flags of the Catholic Church and Nicaragua, making slogans of «Long live the Catholic Church! A Church without Mary is not a Church yet! Long live Nicaragua!”
Related news: Ortega regime orders to cancel procession of the pilgrim virgin of Fatima
The activity was carried out despite the fact that the Police at the service of the Daniel Ortega regime prohibited the carrying out of the procession of the venerated image, which would leave this Saturday morning from the Cristo Rey roundabout.
Newspaper sources informed Article 66 that police officers were besieging the outskirts of the Cathedral, and plainclothes police officers arrived inside the enclosure to “monitor” the attendees.
“On the corner of the cathedral, in front of the roundabout there are about 50 police motorcycles and on the outskirts of the Cathedral there are riot police and some patrols,” the source explained.
Cardinal calls for forgiveness
In his homily, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua, called for forgiveness for those who “offend us.” “We have felt the closeness of Mary as a mother and a mother of hope,” he said.
“We are going through the pandemic crisis (COVID-19), many with economic problems, many suffering from the absence of a family member, but she – the Virgin Mary – is a consolation for each one of us,” he said.
Related news: Brenes calls on Catholics to “overcome the fear that paralyzes us”, during the Marian Congress
He added that in the face of the fears that Nicaraguans experience daily, they ask María “what’s going on, what do I have to do? Without a doubt, she would put her hands on our shoulders like a loving mother, she would give us a hug in silence and She would tell us whispering in our ears: Son, I’m not here, I’m your mother?».
He also called on the Nicaraguan people to pray in the face of the adverse situations that the country is experiencing. «The Father encourages us to always pray, because He is always with us so that we feel that He and his mother do not abandon us».
Setting an example to Jesus Christ who forgave those who crucified him, the Catholic hierarch asked to forgive those who offend. “Forgiveness that costs many of us and that many can make fun of, but forgiveness is something divine and came from the divine heart of Jesus: to forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.”
“God has taught us to forgive and Mary as a mother also teaches us to forgive and not to return blow for blow, and not to return offenses for offenses but to give love, so that we are truly brothers,” he emphasized.
Brenes’ words come in a context where the dictatorship persists in its siege and persecution of the Catholic Church, imprisoning priests and currently besieging Monsignor Rolando Álvarez.
