Less than 72 hours after banishing a group of seven priests to the Vatican in Rome, the Ortega dictatorship continues its hunt for religious figures from the Diocese of Matagalpa.
Lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, a human rights defender and researcher of violations of religious freedom in Nicaragua, denounced through her social networks the “kidnapping” of the priest Denis Martínez, parish vicar at the Cathedral of San Pedro Apóstol in Matagalpa.
He explained that Father Martínez was arrested by the National Police —controlled by the Ortega Murillo dictatorship— while he was on his way to celebrate the holy mass” this Sunday, August 11.
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“Let us pray that his physical and psychological integrity be respected,” Molina asked the Nicaraguan Catholic faithful.
They want to “exterminate” the Catholic Church
Attorney Molina said that the intentions of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo are to “exterminate the presence of the Catholic Church in Matagalpa.”
The statements of the defender Molina occur in a context in which six of the seven priests exiled to the Vatican by order of the Ortega regime belonged to the Diocese of Matagalpa.
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Among the priests of the Diocese of Matagalpa who were banished are: Monsignor Edgar Sacasa, pastoral vicar of the Diocese of Matagalpa and parish priest of the San Isidro Labrador church; Monsignor Ulises Vega, judicial vicar and chancellor of the Diocese of Matagalpa and parish priest of the San Ramón Nonato church in Matagalpa; and Father Marlon Velásquez, administrator of the Santa Lucía parish in Ciudad Darío and administrator of the San Francisco de Asís Nursing Home in Villa Chagüitillo.
Also expelled from Nicaragua were Father Victor Godoy, parish vicar of the Immaculate Conception of Mary in Sébaco Church; Harvin Torrez, rector of the San Luis Gonzaga Philosophy Seminary and parish priest of the Santa Maria de Guadalupe Church in the Guanuca neighborhood of Matagalpa; and Father Jairo Pravia, parish priest of the Immaculate Conception of Mary in Sébaco Church.
