A few days after the religious festivities of Holy Week, Father Edwing Román, a critic of the Ortega regime, lamented that Nicaragua is the only country where processions will not take place.
“Holy Week is also characterized by the processions that fill the streets of our cities, but in Nicaragua, the Ortega y Murillo dictatorship has prohibited them,” said the former parish priest of the San Miguel Arcángel church in Masaya.
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Referring to the repression against Catholic priests, the priest recalled that the Nicaraguan justice system keeps Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, in jail, Monsignor Leonardo Urbina and the priest Manuel Garcíathe first two religious to be imprisoned.
He also pointed out that the Ortega dictatorship has exiled 19 priests from Nicaragua, including Monsignor Silvio Báez, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua.
In interview with Article 66Father Román said that the Ortega regime has intensified its “repressive campaign” against the Catholic Church of Nicaragua”, however, he assures that “this will not be forever, we know that the Ortega regime will go down in Nicaragua’s black history” .
“Practically, the dictatorship does not want to see people on the street, but the processions are part of our Catholic faith,” added the religious exiled in the United States.
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He also stated that he believes in God that the situation in the country will improve and everything will continue, “especially with a difficult experience that we have lived through and that will serve to fight for a better society.”
“I hope that the people are not mistaken and that God frees us from other dictatorships that want to come in the future, because we do not want to suffer anymore,” he said.
He also encouraged parishioners to visit Catholic temples this Holy Week. “Let us not be afraid because the word of God says not to be afraid, so the Nicaraguan people must attend the temples, even if it is under restrictions.”
Since 2022 and the first four months of 2023, the Nicaraguan regime has prohibited all religious manifestations in the streets, including, on several occasions, preventing parishioners from entering the temples.
