On May 12, there, far from their land, in the co-cathedral of Santo Tomás Moro, when the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Monsignor Silvio Báez, lays his hands on the deacon Raúl Antonio Vega González and pronounces the consecratory prayer, they will have been years of work and constant search for consecration to the life of the Catholic Church. From that moment on, the father Raúl Vega will be the child, the young man, the son, brother, friend, the former political prisoner and exiled by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship who decided to dedicate his life to the preaching of the Gospel and the search for justice. for his people.
He was born 27 years ago, on June 3, 1995 in Las Tunas, a small rural community in Ciudad Darío, in the department of Matagalpa. There, in a landscape that was sometimes arid, sometimes green, she grew up, in her own words, in a family environment where interpersonal relationships were “very good.”
The kind, friendly but at the same time energetic and disciplined character of “Raulito”, as his family and friends have known him since childhood, was forged thanks to growing up in a very close family, with parents who taught him to love life. faith. “A family environment made up of the love of my parents as a result of the Lord’s blessing in our home,” says Deacon Vega in a conversation with Article 66in which he told details of his life.
With his priestly ordination, a stage of his life that represented a lot of work, dedication, sacrifice and pain in the name of faith came to a close, as he himself describes it. A path that began when he was 13 years old, back in his native Ciudad Darío and that led him to work alongside the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, with whom he challenged censorship and attacks against the Catholic Church undertaken by the dictatorship. of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, to the point of being kidnapped by the Ortega Police along with his pastor and then arbitrarily imprisoned, to finally be exiled and deprived of his nationality.
Related news: Deacon of Matagalpa, banished by Ortega, will be ordained a priest in the US by Monsignor Báez
Before arriving at the seminary, the religious says, his life was like that of an ordinary young man, among neighbors, friends, classmates and children’s games. Even with “girlfriends”, according to what he tells it. Although “girlfriend as such, no, because it was not a formal relationship, but in love.” It was at this time that he visited his small community church often. In that rural temple, called Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, in Las Tunas, he began to feel attracted to religious life when he saw the priests who came to celebrate, officiating the mass.
While he studied the first three years of primary school at his community school and then the other three at the Santa Isabel school, he continued to go to mass and continued to feel the “tickle” of the priestly vocation.
However, it was when he entered secondary school at the Rubén Darío National Institute, in Ciudad Darío, that he took that little tickle of faith very seriously. Deacon Vega recalls that, as part of the process of incubating his vocation, he decided that it was necessary to dedicate himself to his secondary studies. «I rarely went to parties, I liked to have fun with my friends from my community, go out with my father to his work, learn from them. (He was) a young man from the field, learning a little from field work and always being with my family, I liked going to church and going to see baseball played,” he recalls.
The soon-to-be priest Vega clarifies that his religious vocation was not sudden, since from a very young age life attracted him to the priestly ministry. «I loved to see how the priest celebrated the mass. The idea of being a priest seemed to be minuscule but over time he became more and more established », he confesses.
It was when he was in his third year of high school that it was revealed to him in his heart that that feeling of his childhood towards the priestly ministry was still present. However, he waited until he graduated from high school and at the age of 17 he felt that it was time to give “an answer to God” and he did so. He took his high school diploma and dedicated himself to living a year that they call “vocational discernment.” In that period, he felt that his decision could not be turned back and for this reason, in 2013, he entered the San Luis Gonzaga Minor Seminary in Matagalpa, but not before having had a serious talk with his parish priest, who with words of encouragement gave him the “last push” to go to seminary.
Not everything has been easy or fast to reach that May 12 in which he will finally be ordained a priest. When he appeared at the San Luis Gonzaga Minor Seminary, like all his companions, he lived the “hard experience” of separating from his family, something that, as he now admits, cost him a bit. In his new religious home he was received at that time by the rector, priest Edwin Rodríguez.
His life in the seminary was one of study, dedication and work until he was ordained a deacon and put to work alongside Bishop Álvarez. His personal and religious life received an earthquake that tested his faith… in the first days of August 2022, the regime’s Police surrounded the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, holding the bishop himself and several religious among whom was the Deacon Vega.
On August 19, the repressive forces of the dictatorship finally stormed the religious house and forcibly removed the occupants. On January 27, the Judiciary subordinated to the dictator Ortega, represented in this case by Judge Nadia Camila Tardencilla, head of the Second District Criminal Court of Managua, in a trial riddled with annulments and false evidence, declared guilty for the alleged crime to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news to four religious, including Deacon Vega.
The other condemned were the priests Ramiro Tijerino, rector of the Juan Pablo II University and in charge of the San Juan Bautista parish; José Luis Díaz and Sadiel Eugarrios, first and second vicar of the San Pedro Cathedral, in Matagalpa, respectively.
The young religious was in prison for six months, which for him was a test of faith, a process that brought out the strength of his vocation for service and dedication to priestly life. Now, in a quick account of his life, the boy who left Las Tunas to dedicate his life to the Church, believes that there is no better time for his ordination.
He has already fulfilled the time required by Canon Law and therefore decided to speak with the corresponding authorities of the Diocese of Pensacola, Tallahassee, USA, where he is currently in exile, to begin organizing the ordination ceremony. The bishop of that Diocese officially notified him that he could proceed with the preparations. «I cried, because it is something that I have waited for all my life. A life full of sacrifice, of pain, but now with the joy and satisfaction of unworthily receiving the sacred priestly order. “It pays to be a priest,” he adds.
The religious act of his ordination will be offered to the people of Nicaragua, his parents, brother and family and to the Church of Nicaragua. «Despite the adversities of life, being in prison and seeing the person who ordained me as a deacon of the Church (Monsignor Álvarez) in prison inspires me to ordain myself, in a martyrdom Church, a sacrificial Church that despite human forces is still alive, present and watching over the people. Seeing the living testimony of my Bishop today is an effective sign of the particular Church and of the whole world. He is an imprisoned prophet martyr », concluded the religious.
Meanwhile, the researcher Martha Patricia Molina, author of the study, “Nicaragua, A Persecuted Church?”, referring to the upcoming priestly ordination of deacon Raul Vega, opined that the persecution that the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship has undertaken against the institution religious and its leaders, far from frightening the religious, has strengthened their conviction and spirit of service, which they exercise even if they are forced into exile or exile.
He stressed that it is a symbol of resistance and a blessing that it is the auxiliary bishop of Managua in exile, Silvio José Báez, who carries out the celebration of the religious ordination ceremony.
Related news: Bishops of Spain: Nicaraguan Church is persecuted for defending freedom of the people
The scholar clarified that Deacon Vega should have been ordained in Nicaragua and by its Bishop Álvarez, but given the repression exerted by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship and the unjust arrest of the hierarch, the young priest will have to do it in the place where he arrived after the exile.
For his part, Bishop Báez, who will be in charge of laying hands and saying the sacramental prayer at the ordination of Deacon Vega, when announcing the ceremony, pointed out that for him it is a reason for “immense joy” to confer priestly ordination on Deacon Raúl Vega, from the Diocese of Matagalpa, released from political prison and Nicaraguan exile.
“His ordination is a beautiful sign of hope for the Church and the people of Nicaragua!” said the exiled religious leader. And he added that he, together with Raúl Vega, “offer this ordination to Nicaragua and the Diocese of Matagalpa.”
