Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, Bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, exhorted that if humility, respect and forgiveness are kept, the unity “that Christ today asks the Father for all of us” will be experienced. .
He affirmed that the unity that Christ calls will be experienced “in marriage, in the family, in the community, in society, in Nicaragua and of course in our Church that is one, holy, catholic and apostolic.”
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In his homily this Sunday, from the San Pedro Apóstol Cathedral Church in Matagalpa, the Catholic leader recalled Jesus’ prayer about unity. “It is first of all about the unity of the Church of the people of God; that unity is founded on one Lord, one faith, one God and Father who is above all, for all and in all».
«Jesus Christ came to reestablish the lost unity, so that there would be only one flock and only one shepherd; a shepherd whose voice the sheep know and follow him, but they will not follow a stranger, they will flee from him,” Álvarez added.
The sad legacy “of division”
On the other hand, the religious pointed out that despite the sacrifice on the Cross of Jesus Christ, there is the “sad and painful inheritance of the division among men, caused by the sin of pride, endures throughout the centuries.”
In relation to current social conflicts, Monsignor stressed that the consequences of division are wars, hatred, conflicts of all kinds between one and the other.
Citing the words of Saint Paul VI, Álvarez asserted that for the Catholic Church “no one is strange, no one is excluded, no one is far away. we are a single human family, which in the multiplicity of its differences walks towards unity».
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“Just as unity in order must reign in a family, there must also be unity in society, in Nicaragua. In this, neither should have more citizenship rights than the other; neither the fatherless nor the widow, neither the Jews nor the Greeks; neither the slaves nor the free, neither the men nor the women, neither the poor nor the rich, because we are all one in Christ Jesus”, the monsignor stressed.
For the Bishop of Matagalpa, the only way for a person or a society to grow is the “culture of encounter, a culture in which everyone has something good to contribute and everyone can receive something in return.”
The prelate concluded by exhorting the Nicaraguan people to look “within their own conscience; that he leaves the interests that atrophy the heart, that he overcomes indifference towards the other and that he overcomes his own extremes and walks towards unity, only in this way will we get ahead; Cheer up Nicaragua.”
Monsignor Rolando Álvarez is one of the religious in Nicaragua most besieged by the Daniel Ortega regime, however, from the pulpit he continues to call for true unity to get out of the socio-political crisis that the country is experiencing.
