From the pulpit of the Santa Agatha church, in Miami, Florida, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Monsignor Silvio José Báez, raised his voice to condemn the police kidnapping of Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez and ten other religious, in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa . “This business of eliminating the prophets is something very old. It is always practiced by unjust, intolerant and violent systems,” said the Catholic leader exiled by the persecution of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
For 13 days, the head of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí has been locked in his offices, along with five priests, three seminarians and two lay people, surrounded by a police fence that prevents them from getting out. as well as receive visits, medicines or food. The kidnapping has been condemned by representatives of the Catholic Church in many countries -including the Episcopal Conference of Latin America and the Caribbean- as well as the Organization of American States (OAS).
When making the parallelism between his peer (Monsignor Álvarez), and the biblical Jeremías, Bishop Báez recalled that his execution was requested because “saying these things demoralizes the few warriors left in this city and the entire town! This man does not seek the good of this town, but its ruin!”
“The accusations against the prophet of God could be translated today in these terms that may be familiar to us: Jeremiah ‘organizes violent groups, inciting them to carry out acts of hatred against the population, causing an atmosphere of anxiety and disorder, disturbing the peace and harmony in the community”, in reference to the statement of August 5, with which the National Police, at the service of the regime, announced the opening of an investigation process against the religious, who are being held hostage.
Baez called the accusations “false and ridiculous. Jeremías was never violent, nor did he preach violence, and he was accused of being subversive; Jeremiah loved his city of Jerusalem passionately and was accused of being an agent of the empire and a traitor to the country; Jeremías preached consolation and hope for his people and was accused of committing hate crimes.”
The Church will not be silent
“Such are the tyrannical powers of yesterday and today. In order to maintain the system of oppression that they have imposed, preserve their privileges, increase their wealth and continue subjugating the people, they accuse with lies, slander and prosecute unjustly… today, those same sinister, unjust and criminal systems that do not support the truth and who are not willing to listen to God, slander and attack the prophets, raise false accusations against them and offend and denigrate the Church”, he added.
The religious argued that “tyrants cannot bear the prophetic word that exposes their evil and their crimes. Today’s powerful people fear a prophetic Church, they would like to see the Church locked up in the sacristy, with its mouth shut and hopefully bowed before them. Failing to do so, they are filled with rage with aggressive speeches with which they do nothing but show their own weakness and the darkness of their conscience, but everything is useless”.
By trusting that the church will prevail, the priest invited people not to be intimidated, because “nothing and no one can silence the voice of God that resonates in the humble voice of the men he has chosen to speak on his behalf”, while remembering that “there are always just people and good, even within the most corrupt and violent systems… God never abandons his prophets. Let the criminals who want to kill them not forget this.”
“God does not abandon his prophets or his people. For this reason, the prophet does not shut up, even though he is sinking in a well full of mud, even though he is being unjustly accused or attacked by dark and violent forces. The prophet continues to bring consolation and hope and continues to denounce any injustice that threatens human beings”, pointing out that the true prophet “must not be accountable to any master other than God and has no other interests but those of God”.
“God does not abandon his people either. Therefore, the people must never lose hope. The last word does not have the tyrants. History is decided by the peoples, thanks to their ability to dream and their effort to organize and resist. History is decided by the peoples who rely firmly on the strength of the liberating God from all oppression. History is decided by the people who trust in the love of God that gives them the strength to fight to free themselves from every inhuman yoke”.
religious solidarity
For its part, since his kidnapping in the Matagalpa Episcopal PalaceBishop Rolando Álvarez asked in a mass broadcast on Facebook “on this tenth day, in which we are gathered and held in our episcopal curia (…), we want to pray especially for children, so that we adults can inherit a society better than we have been able to build, a society where peace, justice, holiness, freedom and truth reign.”
Álvarez implored for a society “without exclusion”, that prioritizes “the poorest”, where “the gaze of revenge and resentment does not reign, but of love and friendship.”
This year, the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has imprisoned two priests, closed eight Catholic radio stations, removed subscription television programming from three Catholic channels, entered by force and raided a parish , Y the expulsion of the missionaries of the order Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Previously, Bishop Báez had described as “kidnapping”, all the police apparatus assembled around the headquarters where Bishop Álvarez remains. “I condemn the kidnapping of my brother Bishop Rolando Álvarez by the Nicaraguan dictatorship”, Báez wrote on his Twitter account.
I condemn the kidnapping of my brother Bishop Rolando Álvarez by the Nicaraguan dictatorship. I am close to him with my love and my prayer. It is a light that shines in the darkness, which the darkness will not be able to extinguish (cf. Jn 1:5). He and those with him must be released! pic.twitter.com/T7wclXgHpL
– Silvio José Báez (@silviojbaez) August 12, 2022
“I am close to him with my love and my prayers. It is a light that shines in the darkness, that the darkness will not be able to extinguish… he and those who accompany him must be released!”, advocated the auxiliary bishop of Managua, who has been in exile for more than three years.
