Pope Francis has appointed Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop of Matagalpa exiled by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, as a member of the Synod of Synodality that will be held in Rome between October 2 and 27 of this year.
The Synod on Synodality is a meeting where the Pontiff, together with bishops from episcopal conferences, priests, religious, theologians, lay people and other members appointed by the Holy See, will be able to discern on the progress of evangelization in the contemporary world.
The first part of the Synod took place from October 4 to 29, 2023, with the participation of 464 people, including bishops, priests, nuns and lay people. On that occasion, the Nicaraguan Church was represented by the layman Néstor Esaú Velázquez of the Diocese of León.
The synodal process has been novel because of the questionnaire that the Holy See sent to the Catholic faithful in 2021 on the presence of the Church in the contemporary world and how to respond appropriately to evangelization in the 21st century.
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“In the case of Monsignor Alvarez, he is part of a direct appointment by the Holy Father and is among the synod fathers that he directly chose, and this is very important for the Church of Nicaragua, so he could contribute by having a voice and a vote,” said Venezuelan journalist Rixio Portillo, a specialist in religious issues.
For Portillo, the appointment of Monsignor Álvarez, chosen directly by the Pope, is no coincidence, since the supreme leader of the Catholic Church seeks to make visible the experience of persecution and testimony of faith that the Church of Nicaragua is experiencing.
“It is a recognition, without a doubt, of the Church of Nicaragua, of those witnesses of faith next door, as Pope Francis himself says. This, without taking away the merits of Monsignor Álvarez, who as pastor of a suffering, wounded and persecuted Church can offer a courageous testimony,” said the columnist of the Spanish Catholic magazine Vida Nueva.
The expert said that “religious persecution against Christians is a reality in the world” and regretted that it is often made invisible in the great global media agenda.
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“Monsignor Alvarez has this courageous testimony of a Church that does not bow to power and if he is exiled today it has been in obedience, and not because his heart or his mission has been far from Nicaragua. He sums up the model of pastor that Francis seeks, a pastor who smells like sheep,” stressed the professor at the University of Monterrey (Mexico).
No bishop from Nicaragua will participate in the Synod
The official list of participants in the second and final part of the Synod on Synodality shows that none of the Nicaraguan bishops who remain in the country will participate in the Catholic meeting.
For journalist Rixio Portillo, this may be because the Holy See does not want the Nicaraguan Church to be “deprived of capital” if the Managua regime decides not to allow any Catholic hierarch to enter the country to attend the Synod.
“The Nicaraguan College of Bishops is already quite weakened by the policies that we are all familiar with in Nicaragua. It would also be worth considering that the greatest challenge for the local Church will be to implement the ecclesiastical reforms that emerge from the Synod,” the expert pointed out.
