Nicaraguans who profess Catholicism expressed their fear of being left without any television option for their faith, after learning that one of the subscription television companies with a regional presence that operates in the country has decided to stop broadcasting the signal as of July 1 of the American channel EWTN, with religious content.
The situation takes on special importance after the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo decided to censor Nicaragua’s Catholic Channel and take it off the air, in a measure that the vicar general of the Archdiocese of Managua, Carlos Avilés, has described as a repressive act of the regime against the Church.
“This channel (Catholic Channel of Nicaragua) expressed solidarity with Monsignor Rolando, who is its director. Then the government ordered to close (it). The Episcopal Conference is surprised, it has not said anything but it is certainly one more blow by the government in repression of the Church,” Avilés told Spanish journalist Rodrigo Moreno Quicios of the Rome-based news agency Rome Reports yesterday.
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In a tweet, the Peruvian journalist Alejando Bermúdez, director of the Catholic Information Agency (ACI) and EWTN News, assured that the Catholic television station’s departure from the air is due to the fact that the subscription TV company has requested a very large amount of money for rebroadcasting the signal in Latin America, including Nicaragua.
“Unfortunately it is not. DIRECT TV asked EWTN en Espanol for a fortune to keep it on its grid. EWTN cannot accept blackmail because it is a non-profit organization. It is open war with DIRECT Tv Latin America,” Bermúdez wrote when asked by Internet users.
Catholics ask to keep EWTN
People who regularly attend the Catholic Church in Nicaragua lamented on condition of anonymity the decision of the possible exit of the EWTN signal in one of the subscription television companies that operate in the country and asked it to review measure.
“It is very sad to see how our Catholic religiosity (in Nicaragua) has been aggressively attacked. I do not see what harm does a channel proclaiming the truth, love and mercy of God. As a Catholic I feel extremely offended and I sincerely ask God to reverse this absurd decision. May our Father God, with his infinite love, touch the hearts of those who have distanced themselves from him and seek to distance us from us by removing the EWTN signal, ”said a parishioner from the San Pablo Apóstol parish in Managua, who is the leader of a parish group.
Related news: Monsignor Avilés: Closure of the Catholic Channel is a repressive act of Ortega
It should be noted that in the other subscription television company present in Nicaragua, the EWTN channel signal is broadcast normally.
“Given that here in Nicaragua they closed Catholic Channel 51, I moved to EWTN because I have a granddaughter who I want to learn to believe in God. I want to form it. And now I find out that they are going to close EWTN. I feel very sad and at the same time, very angry,” said another parishioner from Managua who has a cable subscription with the company that plans to take the religious media off the air as of July 1.
For this citizen, EWTN is a means that allows her to support the Christian formation of her family, especially her granddaughter. And she expressed her discomfort at the closure of the Nicaraguan Catholic Channel, ordered by Ortega and which she pointed out is part of a persecution of the Nicaraguan Church.
“Of course I find it bad. Full of fury all this about the persecution of the Church and the closure of the Catholic Channel. It even keeps me in depression because I feel that something is missing, “concluded the parishioner.
