Monsignor Silvio Báez, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua, sent an emotional message to the Nicaraguan people on the occasion of the Gritería festivities, in honor of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, this December 7.
The prelate affirmed that the Virgin Mary, as a “tender mother” that she was for Jesus Christ, is also “a tender mother also for us (Nicaraguans), disciples of her son.”
In reference to the political crisis that Nicaragua is experiencing, after the wave of repression at the hands of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, the bishop pointed out that Nicaraguans “are living a moment of orphanhood as a country.”
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“Those who should ensure the well-being of society and take care of our future have become producers of tears, artisans of terror and destroyers of human dignity,” the religious reproached, referring to the country’s dictatorial couple.
He stressed that citizens currently feel orphaned and helpless by law, “captives in a country that has become a great prison or exiled in unknown lands,” in relation to the exile of many thousands of Nicaraguans.
However, Báez reminded the public that despite the “orphanhood” they suffer due to the Ortega dictatorship, “we are a people with a mother, we are not orphans. We have a mother who loves us and cares for us, she cries with us and wants to comfort us. A mother never abandons her children ».
“Although our history seems adrift to us, at the mercy of ambition, pettiness and violence, and full of tears and uncertainty, we are not alone. Although sadness dominates us many times and fatigue overwhelms us, although pain wounds our hearts and we feel alone and without strength, we are not alone, “he added.
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He asserted that “as children of Mary”, it is “time to turn our gaze and heart to the Most Pure, Mother of the Lord and our Mother, and tell her: “Listen, oh, tender mother!, to the cry of your children”». .
Appealing to the Christian faith, the bishop invited the Catholic faithful to unite “our hearts and our voices in a single cry and let us raise our prayer to the Immaculate Conception, the Immaculate Conception, Mother of our country.”
“We are not alone”
Monsignor Báez indicated that although it seems that history is adrift, “at the mercy of ambitions, pettiness and violence, and full of tears and uncertainty, we are not alone.”
«It is time to turn our gaze and heart to the Most Pure, Mother of the Lord and our Mother, and tell her: “Listen, oh, tender mother!, to the cry of your children”. I invite you to unite our hearts and our voices in a single cry and raise our prayer to the Immaculate Conception, the Immaculate Conception, Mother of our country,” she exhorted.
The Catholic hierarch, exiled since 2019, advised Nicaraguans not to allow themselves to be “snatched” by the Ortega and Murillo regime “the last of our freedoms, the freedom to believe, trust and hope in Jesus, our Lord, and in Mary, Mother yours and our Mother».
Despite the repression against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, faithful Catholics have decided to build altars to the venerated image and cry out for the freedom of the country.
