The foreign neocatechumens of the Archdiocese of Managua are asking to return to their countries of origin, after being ordained as priests in Nicaragua, affirmed this Sunday, January 29, the Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes.
A group of 11 seminarians were ordained priests of the Archdiocese of Managua yesterday Saturday; However, not all of them will serve in the jurisdiction, according to the cardinal, because foreigners have requested not to serve in Nicaragua, a country that has been going through a sociopolitical crisis since 2018, in which more than a dozen religious have been arrested or have opted for exile.
In the sunday homilybroadcast on the social networks of the Archdiocese of Managua, Brenes did not specify the number of foreign neocatechumens who have opted for excardination, but he maintained that a part “of the priests who have left the seminary, of the catechumens ordained here, have wanted to return to their countries, so that decreases the number a little”.
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The cardinal, who in 2018 stated that the Catholic Church is “persecuted” in Nicaragua, said he had no problem with the uprooting of foreign neocatechumens, cited the case of a priest who requested it from Chile, and mentioned that “the important thing is to serve ”.
Relations between the Catholic Church and the former Sandinista guerrilla Daniel Ortega, who has ruled Nicaragua since 2007 after having done so between 1979 and 1990, have been highlighted by continuous friction.
The differences between the Catholics and Ortega sharpened in 2018, when the religious opened their doors to anti-government protesters fleeing armed attacks by police and “paramilitaries”, in the largest social outbreak in the country in almost half a century.
According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), these attacks left at least 355 dead, of which Ortega has admitted 300.
In 2018, the Sandinista government expelled from Nicaragua a Colombian and a Salvadoran priest who between them had been preaching in the country for more than 50 years. In 2022 he did the same with the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag and with 18 nuns from the Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Related news: Ortega executed 140 attacks against the Catholic Church in 2022
In the last year, it has also imprisoned a bishop, seven priests and two collaborators from the diocese of Matagalpa, closed nine Catholic radio stations and removed three Catholic channels from subscription television programming, and prevented processions and pilgrimages. .
The Catholic community represents 58.5% of the 6.6 million inhabitants of Nicaragua, according to the last national census.
