After the thanksgiving mass for the release of 222 former political prisoners, held on Sunday, February 19, at the Metropolitan Cathedral of San José, Cosa Rica; he Father German Rodriguez, prefect of the temple, expressed his closeness to the Catholic Church of Nicaragua, which since 2018 has been the victim of a strong wave of repression by the Daniel Ortega regime.
“We are brothers in Christ. The Church is one and of course we stand in solidarity with our pastors —because— the situation that some of them are experiencing —three imprisoned priests— seems unfair to us,” said the religious.
He indicated that as “servants of Christ” the only thing they do as priests is “announce a gospel of peace, justice, love, forgiveness, charity; and that for that reason we are persecuted or slandered is not right and even less that some of our brothers are prisoners as if they had committed a great crime ».
“There are many criminals who walk the streets and those who do good are in prison, it is certainly not fair (…) that is why we pray for our pastors and God willing that soon there will be hope in them so that these situations of oppression and injustice don’t give up,” added Father Rodríguez.
“We must pray for those who persecute us”
Regarding the regime of Daniel Ortega that does not stop its persecution against the Catholic Church of Nicaragua, the prefect advised that “we must pray for those who persecute us and who behave like enemies.”
Related news: Religious persecution in Nicaragua worsened in 2022, denounces agency
“We must pray for those who do not live coherently and who do us harm (…) in such a way that neither hatred nor resentment nor violence is the path that Christ wants, but before that reality we pray for the conversion of them —the Ortega dictatorship— and that one day they let themselves be touched by the grace of the Spirit and that they discover that there are actions and words that correct us,” he emphasized.
“Sentencing Monsignor Álvarez is very unfair”
Regarding the sentence of 26 years in prison plus the loss of nationality against Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, the religious described the sentence as “unjust.”
He also said that as a Church they respect the decision of Monsignor Álvarez not to leave Nicaragua and prefer to continue in the country, despite the onslaught of the Ortega dictatorship. “It is very hard to be taken out of the land that one loves for no reason (…) but the monsignor’s heart is with his land, with his people, that is why he did not feel that the way out was to leave and rather wanted to be with his land that to the situation in which it is found, “he said.
Gutiérrez called on the Nicaraguan people to remain united in prayer “and to always seek peace, understanding, dialogue and to always seek Christian ideals, that we not allow ourselves to be dominated by ideologies and passing fashions.”
After the mass held yesterday Sunday, a group of opponents exiled in Costa Rica held a brief sit-in where they demanded in front of the central park of Costa Rica where they demanded the freedom of Monsignor Álvarez and that of the more than 30 political prisoners who are still in captivity. in the different jails of the country.
