The foreign neocatechumens of the Archdiocese of Managua are asking to return to their countries of origin, after being ordained as priests in Nicaragua, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes said this Sunday.
A group of eleven seminarians were ordained priests of the Archdiocese of Managua last Saturday; However, not all of them will serve in the jurisdiction, according to the cardinal, because foreigners have requested not to serve in Nicaragua, a country that has been going through a sociopolitical crisis since 2018, in which more than a dozen religious have been arrested or have opted for exile.
In the Sunday homily, broadcast on the social networks of the Archdiocese of Managua, Brenes did not specify the number of foreign neocatechumens who have opted for excardination, but he maintained that a part “of the priests who have left the seminary, of the ordained catechumens here, they have wanted to return to their countries, so that reduces the number a little”.
The cardinal, who in 2018 stated that the Catholic Church is “persecuted” in Nicaragua, said he had no problem with the uprooting of foreign neocatechumens, cited the case of a priest who requested it from Chile, and mentioned that “the important thing is to serve ”.
This Sunday, the Cardinal of Honduras, Óscar Andrés Rodríguez, He regretted that many members of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua are accused by a “misadministered and manipulated justice system.”
“The brothers of the Church in Nicaragua unjustly brought to court with false accusations, how happy can those judges who know they are acting unfairly,” Rodríguez emphasized in a Sunday homily. “Do you think those judges will have inner peace?” asked the cardinal.
Ortega attacks against the Catholic Church
Relations between the Catholic Church and the former Sandinista guerrilla Daniel Ortega, who has ruled Nicaragua since 2007 after having done so between 1979 and 1990, have been highlighted by continuous friction.
The differences between the Catholics and Ortega sharpened in 2018, when the religious opened their doors to anti-government protesters fleeing armed attacks by police and “paramilitaries”, in the largest social outbreak in the country in almost half a century.
In 2018, the Sandinista government expelled from Nicaragua a Colombian and a Salvadoran priest who between them had been preaching in the country for more than 50 years. In 2022 he did the same with the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag and with 18 nuns from the Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
In the last year, it has also imprisoned a bishop, seven priests and two collaborators from the diocese of Matagalpa, closed nine Catholic radio stations and removed three Catholic channels from subscription television programming, and prevented processions and pilgrimages. .
This week, four priests, two seminarians and a cameraman from the diocese of Matagalpa They were found guilty of the alleged crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news to the detriment of the State of Nicaragua and society.
The Sandinista judge Nadia Camila Tardencilla, head of the Second Criminal District Court of Managua, found guilty 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 Matagalpa de San Pedro Cathedral, respectively, and Deacon Raúl Vega González
In this way, in less than fifteen days, the Ortega regime adds seven religious sentenced to prison; the first was the Priest Oscar Benavides, also from the Diocese of Matagalpa. Two other priests were convicted in 2022, and Matagalpa Bishop Rolando Álvarez remains under impeachment.
