On Monday, May 13, Nicaraguan Catholics commemorate the solemnity of Our Lady of Fátima. However, religious activities in her honor will take place exclusively inside the temples, since the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has imposed restrictions on churches.
Through her official X account, the lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina He denounced that the dictatorial couple “forbade all celebrations (of the Virgin of Fátima) in the streets and again they will take place intramurals.”
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On their official Facebook pages, parishes from different departments of the country announced that the processions and other events would take place inside or, at most, around the temples. Some of the churches affected were Immaculate Conceptionin Masaya, and the Sweet Name of Jesus, in Leon.
This last church broadcast an announcement indicating that the prayer of the Holy Rosary, the Candle Night and the processions would take place in the parish atrium. Likewise, in the published photographs it is observed that the parishioners remain behind the gates of the temple and do not go out into the street.
The parish Our Lady of Fatima, located in El Salto, San Rafael del Sur, Managua, was also affected by the restrictions. Since April 29, they published an agenda on social networks with the activities of their patron saint festivities and confirmed that the processions would take place “within our parish.”
The devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima originated from a series of Marian apparitions that took place in Fátima, Portugal, in 1917. According to Catholic tradition, three shepherd children, Lucía dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary in six occasions, between May and October of that year.
The Virgin would have entrusted the children with messages and revelations, including predictions about future events and calls to prayer, penance and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The apparitions at Fatima have been recognized by the Catholic Church as worthy of faith and veneration.
However, the Ortega regime prohibits Nicaraguan Catholics from practicing their religious freedom. Only in Holy Week this year, some 4,800 processions typical of the Lenten season were restricted, according to a count by lawyer Molina.
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In addition, some four thousand agents of the National Police were sent to monitor and harass lay people who attended the religious activities that took place inside the temples, he explained to Article 66 the author of the report “Nicaragua, a persecuted Church.”
In six years of crisis, the dictatorship has ordered the desecration of religious temples, the arrest of priests, the persecution of the clergy, permanent surveillance and espionage of priests, and the closure of NGOs, schools and universities linked to the Catholic Church.
