for the father Rafael Bermudez, Nicaraguan priest in exile, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo could use a dialogue with the Catholic Church through the Vatican to impose “their insane demands.”
In interviews with Article 66, the priest pointed out that any attempt at dialogue is to find ways to start something formal and something serious, “remember that there are many things involved. The Church wants religious freedom, it wants the freedom of the people, the freedom of one of its members”.
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However, the priest emphasizes that they are not aware of what are the “crazy demands of the dictatorial couple —of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo—; and it is not strange, because we have already seen it on different occasions, that they have wanted to negotiate that some characters who are at their service have their personal sanctions suspended.
«We do not know exactly what demands they are wanting to ask of the Church itself and the Holy See so that an understanding can be advanced. They —the Ortega regime— are not going to take a step like this, since they do not know kindness at all and therefore they are not going to take a step of generosity », he remarked.
“Church must defend the gospel”
In reference to whether the dictatorship will release at least the arbitrarily detained priests, in exchange for a more neutral position with respect to human rights violations in Nicaragua, Bermúdez indicated that the Church “must try to live and even defend the integrity of proclaiming the gospel.
“When we are responsible for having received the Gospel (…) it is like a double-edged handcuff that hurts both when entering and when leaving. We know that when preaching the word it is not always putting a cloth of warm water, and these are some things that the Church cannot neglect at any time », he argued.
He stressed that if the Church wants to “dignify and care for the responsibility and dignity that God gave us, that cannot be negotiated at any time, because the proclamation of the gospel entails freedom, integrity and dignity of people.”
“There are so many factors that the Church must take care of; here you are not negotiating an object, a property, here what is being discussed is the same mission and responsibility that the Church has not received from a human being, but from God, from there I do not see that things are so easy» , he added.
Related news: Ortega expels nuns for not “giving them lay information,” priest reveals
The priest expressed that it is correct that some of the members of the church are prudent, but one cannot give up “something that man has not given us, but God has given us, so it is not man who must say whether or not we should exercise it.
Ortega tries to ban freedom of worship
Referring to the prohibition of processions in Masaya and other cities, the priest pointed out that the “deeper” objective of the Ortega regime is to frighten the population “because it is already prohibiting group meetings in many places.”
“He has prohibited activities and I am not referring to what is currently happening with San Miguel Arcángel or with San Jerónimo in Masaya, but there are small activities that he has prohibited, they have even threatened lay people,” he explained.
Father Bermúdez congratulated the people of Masaya who, despite the repression carried out by Ortega, arrived at the churches of San Jerónimo and Sa Miguel to participate in their religious activities.
“Congratulations to my people because the spirit is alive and the Spirit of God is acting in them, but it is worrying for the dictatorship, which realized that the people did not convene to attack anyone, but to praise God, but they – the dictatorship – they are above everything and they hurt».
Despite government repression against the Catholic Church and the imprisonment of priests, parishioners continue to demand freedom of worship and defy the regime’s obstacles.
