Former major league baseball player Dennis Martínez applauds the “courage” shown by the Bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando Alvarezat this time when the Nicaraguan regime is developing a process against him for the alleged crimes of conspiracy to undermine the national integrity and propagation of false news.
“An example not only as a Catholic, but as a Nicaraguan citizen in not abandoning his homeland, reflecting that even in adverse conditions and precarious situations his faith is unshakable. And I say this because of the publication of El País where they reported that the Nicaraguan justice system gave him two options: exile or jail and the father’s response has been to refuse to abandon his parishioners, he does not want to turn his back on his Catholic people,” said Martínez in a opinion piece published this morning in La Prensa.
Related news: Impeachment trial begins against Monsignor Rolando Álvarez
He went on to question, “How many of us are capable of doing the same? Are we willing to sacrifice our freedom unfairly? To put faith in God above all else and prove it with facts? Monsignor Álvarez is the figure of the Catholic Church with the greatest weight in Nicaragua for preaching with actions and executing the commandments of God.
The religious leader was violently arrested on August 19, 2022 when he was in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa along with other seminarians and laymen. In the early hours of the morning he was taken out by a strong police force that held him captive for 15 days. He was transferred to Managua to a family home.
Monsignor Rolando Álvarez is the first bishop of the ecclesiastical province of Nicaragua to be imprisoned by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. Other priests, lay people, journalists and seminarians were also taken as political prisoners by the regime. Some are accused of the same crimes as the bishop and others for common crimes.
On January 10, he was brought before the Ortega justice for an initial hearing, there the court admitted the case, kept him under house arrest and sent him to trial for this Monday morning.
Dennis Martínez expresses that “I do not want to fall into the baseless accusations or the childish criticism of the impulse, but I consider that the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua has not acted accordingly to the seriousness of the situation of Monsignor Álvarez, nor did it at the time with Monsignor Silvio Báez. And I say this because I understand that in Christ we are one, a single family and I sacrifice even my life for my family, that is why I mention the example of Álvarez, which is exactly what he does: sacrificing his life to continue taking the message to his parishioners of the truth”, he pointed out in the letter published in the digital medium.
