The Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN), in a press release released this Sunday, reaffirmed its support for Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí. The statement comes two days after the Police of the Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo regime publicly reported that it had launched an investigation against the priest for allegedly “organizing violent groups” and “carrying out acts of hatred.”
“We want to express our fraternity, friendship and episcopal communion with him (Monsignor Álvarez), since this situation touches our hearts as bishops and the Nicaraguan Church”, says part of the note shared by the CEN.
The bishops highlight, citing the book of Corinth chapter 1, verse 26, that “if a member suffers, we all suffer with him”.
Since last Thursday the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa has been besieged by dozens of police and riot police. Monsignor Álvarez remains locked up along with five religious and six lay people.
The regime’s Police indicated that, while they carry out the investigations, the people “investigated” will remain in their homes, imposing house arrest on the religious.
Mexican church rejects harassment
The Archdiocese of Mexico expressed this Sunday its solidarity with the Nicaraguan Catholic Church for the harassment and repression of those who have been victims of Nicaraguan priests by the Ortega-Murillo regime.
“As the Primate Archdiocese of Mexico, we join Celam (Latin American Episcopal Council) and other international organizations to express our solidarity and closeness with the Church of Nicaragua, because what our Nicaraguan brothers and sisters are experiencing hurts us deeply,” the organization said in its Sunday editorial From Faith.
The Mexican Church lamented that so far there have been “no signs of a fruitful dialogue that brings peace and an end to the harassment.”
Regarding the persecution against Álvarez, the Mexican Archdiocese indicated that “this was the last episode of the Sandinista government’s harassment of our sister Nicaraguan Church, a historical persecution that reminds us of the eighties of the last century.”
He recalled that then, the dictatorship reached the point of stripping and publicly exposing a priest, desecrating temples and expelling several priests from the country for denouncing social injustice in the country.
He pointed out that since 2018, when the Church of Nicaragua supported the social protests that demanded the resignation of Ortega, the persecution has worsened, which has led to calling for fasting, constant prayer and the participation of more faithful in the Eucharistic celebrations to call for an end to the repression.
“However, this has increased the anger of President Ortega, who this week has gone so far as to prevent Bishop Álvarez from going to his cathedral to celebrate Holy Mass and Holy Hour.”
Finally, he said that he will pray that the climate of repression in Nicaragua “does not become a normality that is imposed with arms” and that “they can soon find a peaceful solution.”
Monsignor Álvarez: “I am being investigated, I don’t know what”
The bishop of Matagalpa affirmed -in a homily celebrated on August 6- that he does not know what he is being investigated for, emphasizing that “they will be making their own guesses.”
He also reported that while he remains held in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa he will hold mass every day, at 12:00 noon, and they will be broadcast on the social networks of the Diocese of that department.
The Episcopal Conference, citing a speech by Benedict XVI, stated that the feeling of the Church which, by nature, “proclaims the Gospel of Peace and is open to collaboration with all national and international authorities to take care of this great universal good”.
The bishops also encouraged the Catholic faithful, ahead of the National Marian Congress, “to raise and offer prayers and rosaries to Our Lady the Immaculate Conception of Mary, patron saint of Nicaragua.”
Persecution against the Catholic Church
In the last two months, the regime of Ortega and Murillo undertook a repressive escalation against the Catholic Church that has left so far: two priests imprisoned, 18 nuns expelled from the country, two priests besieged, one of them now at home in jail and the closure of a dozen religious media.
The priest Manuel Salvador García Rodríguez, parish priest of the Jesús de Nazareno church —also known as El Calvario—, in Nandaime, Granada, was the first religious to face the justice of the regime, being sentenced on June 22 to two years in prison. for the alleged crime of threatening five people with a knife and a fine of 14,116 cordobas or 200 days fine.
Last July 6, 18 Missionaries of Charityan order founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, were expelled from the country, being transferred from Managua and Granada to the border with Costa Rica, by the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration (DGME) and the Police.
Also, Monsignor Leonardo Urbina, priest of the Perpetuo Socorro parish in Boaco, has been in preventive detention since July 13, awaiting trial for the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl.
The priest Uriel Vallejos and a group of parishioners remained besieged by the Police for almost four days in the parish house of Jesús de la Divina Misericordia, in Sébaco.
In addition, between August 1 and 2, the regime closed 14 media outlets: eleven stations, ten belonging to the Diocese of Matagalpa and the independent Radio Vos, also took several cable television channels off the air and took off the air the local channel RB3 “El Canal de la Zona Láctea”, whose programming was broadcast through subscription television.
