The bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, during his homily this Sunday, on the occasion of International Workers’ Day, which is commemorated every May 1, recalled that in Nicaragua there is “a plague of unemployment”, which It also translates into an increase in forced migration.
“Our society presents the problem of finding a suitable job for anyone capable of doing it, that is, the lack of jobs, this becomes painful problems when those affected are mainly fathers and mothers of families who do not have how to support their their children; when young people, who after having prepared themselves through cultural, technical and professional training, are unable to find a job,” Álvarez said.
The religious stressed that, faced with poverty, hunger, unemployment, insecurity, persecution, instability, economic decline, “many men and women leave their own land, facing inhuman conditions that place them in the front line against to exploitation, trafficking, abuse, smuggling, and all kinds of injustices.”
“The right to be on one’s own land is then part of a solid and complex proposal that entails a series of requests and commitments to society, so that they work ethically and together, invest and promote comprehensive development. The human development of migrants and their families begins with the communities of origin, where they must be guaranteed, together with the right to emigrate, also the right not to emigrate, that is, to find conditions in the homeland that allow a dignified realization of existence. ”, he highlighted.
The increase in the migration of Nicaraguans fleeing the sociopolitical crisis that Nicaragua has been facing since 2018 has marked a trend in the last year. According to the United States Customs and Border Protection Office in 2021 there were a total of 87,530 arrests. And in the first quarter of 2022 there are already 49,738, more than half of 2021.
Prayers for migrants and labor exploited
Álvarez pointed out that those who have a job also face the serious problem that the remuneration they receive “is no longer enough to support a family with dignity and ensure their future.”
“We live in a time of exploitation of workers, in a time where work is not precisely at the service of the dignity of the human person, but rather is slave labor. We must educate a new humanism of work, where man, not profit, is at the center, where the economy serves man and does not serve man”, he pointed out.
He recalled that the social magisterium of the Church has enunciated some rights of workers, among them: the right to fair remuneration, to rest, to work environments and productive processes that do not imply damage to the physical health of the worker and do not harm his moral integrity.
Also, the right of every worker to social security, to a pension for old age, sickness and in case of accidents at work, and social provisions linked to maternity, because “when all this is lacking, fleeing one’s own country is the most terrible and painful alternative”.
The religious concluded his message by entrusting to the Virgin of Guadalupe “unemployed families, exploited workers and those who have taken the terrible option of forced migration.”
Pilgrimage to the Mountain of Peace
After his homily, Álvarez led the pilgrimage to the Mountain of Peace, located on the Apante hill in that city, which on this occasion -according to information released by the Diocese of Matagalpa- was offered in prayer by the migrants.
The procession to the Mountain of Peace had not been held for two years due to the covid-19 pandemic. Monsignor Álvarez, also apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, led the pilgrimage until reaching the top of the hill, from where a blessing was extended.
The pilgrimage to the Mountain of Peace, where a monument of the Cross is located and at its feet the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, has been held on the first Sunday of May since 2015, remembering that the monument was blessed in November 2014 by bishops. of Central America in celebration of the ninety years of the canonical erection of the Diocese of Matagalpa.
