The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo continues to wage an open war against the Catholic Church in the country, to the point of having increased its attacks against the religious institution by more than 460% in the first quarter of this year, according to a study presented this Wednesday.
The analysis called “Nicaragua: a persecuted Church?” In its third installment, led by the lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, it shows that the Ortega and Murillo regime has not given a truce in its increasingly violent attacks against the Catholic Church during the last 5 years, but has intensified them.
Only in the first three months of this year, according to the study, 90 direct attacks against Catholicism were registered, 80 more compared to the first quarter of the previous 4 years.
The results of the study highlight that, in 2023, in addition to the direct attacks against the religious institution, the dictatorship also attacked the faith of the Nicaraguan people by prohibiting all Holy Week processions, “once again violating article 29 of the Constitution Nicaraguan policy that establishes that: everyone has the right to freedom of conscience, thought and to profess or not a religion.
Related news: The hidden agenda of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo: “Dechristianize Nicaragua”
The dictators prohibited 3,176 processions during Holy Week this year. Among them the traditional Stations of the Cross that are carried out worldwide. They have also prohibited all kinds of processions alluding to celebrations of patron saint festivities.
The analysis reveals that, to date, on 5 occasions the dictatorial couple has attacked the Vatican with expulsions, suspension of diplomatic relations, offensive words from Ortega and sieges on the Apostolic Nunciature.
Expulsions and confiscations
In the midst of the war against the Church, the dictatorship has forced a total of 16 Catholic leaders into exile, including a bishop, 2 deacons and 13 priests. A bishop, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, is kept imprisoned and incommunicado.
In addition, 3 priests have been expelled, including the Nuncio. Likewise, 8 religious, including 5 priests, a deacon and 2 seminarians, were exiled after being imprisoned. They were deprived of their nationality and the confiscation of their property was ordered.
Related news: Pope Francis sees an “imbalance” in Daniel Ortega
The anti-religious crusade of the Ortega-Murillo family has left 13 Catholic media closed and 10 Church NGOs closed.
The Pope was right when he compared Ortega to Hitler.
For the researcher Martha Molina, the qualification that Pope Francis made of the dictatorship of Ortega and his wife, when he compared it with the totalitarian dictatorships of the fascist Hitler or the communist Stalin, was correct. Taking into account the generalized repression against the entire Nicaraguan people and the open war that he wages against the Church. “With great respect, I have no choice but to think about an imbalance in the person he leads,” the pope said on that same occasion during an interview with Infobae.
«The Pope did nothing more than correctly define the characteristics of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship. The regime did not like him,” said Molina at the conclusion of the presentation of the study carried out online from his exile in the United States, where he had to take refuge to escape the repression of the regime.
