The tyrants of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, maintain an active anticlerical crusade with which they intend to “destroy the public presence of the Catholic Church”, something that they are not achieving thanks to the resistance of Catholics who have now been encouraged to continue maintaining fidelity to its Christian principles with the Pastoral Letter of Pope Francis, released this December 3rd.
The journalist specialized in covering religious issues, Israel González Espinoza, in an interview with journalist Álvaro Navarro, for the program En Contacto, on Article 66, analyzed the text and context of the Pastoral Letter dedicated by His Holiness, Pope Francis, to the Nicaraguan Catholics who, according to the analyst, are asked to maintain faith in “Papa Chú” and trust that there will be freedom in the country.
The Supreme Pontiff’s Pastoral basically shows his spiritual closeness with Nicaraguan Catholics in the face of “the difficulties, uncertainties and deprivations” imposed by the Ortega and Murillo regime.
For the communicator who specializes in coverage of Catholic issues, in principle, the Pope calls on all Nicaraguans to “continue being faithful to the Church” at a time when the Ortega and Murillo regime are escalating their repression against the religious institution.
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In this sense, the journalist points out that the call to fidelity to Christian teachings and to resist is visible when the Pope asks Nicaraguan Catholics to “not forget that the loving Providence of the Lord accompanies us and is the only sure guide.” .
«That is a call to continue being faithful to the Church and to assume its Christianity with courage, he says: we must assume the Gospel as part of our life and assume that the Gospel also passes, in cases like Nicaragua, through persecution, “This anticlerical wave that we are seeing in Nicaragua and that we have never had in 200 years of republican life,” González highlights.
Spiritual freedom to achieve freedom for Nicaragua
Likewise, the analyst highlighted, during the interview, that the pastoral, which some Catholics have called a “balm” for the Nicaraguan faithful who suffer religious repression in the country, is also a message that can be read with “political keys.” » when referring to the «inner freedom» of Christians to maintain the faith and from that inner freedom feed the freedom of Nicaragua.
The analyst recalls that the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship fiercely attacks the Catholic institution because “it is the last and the only institution left within Nicaragua that escapes, in some way, the totalitarian power of that “crushing roller, of totalitarian asphyxiation in what Nicaragua has become under the Ortega Murillos.
And precisely in the Pope’s letter, according to González, he highlights the call to Catholics to maintain their “individual freedom” by meditating on the mysteries of the rosary.
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The analyst maintains that the bishop of Rome, between the lines, asks the Nicaraguan faithful “in the intimacy of the heart, where the freedom of the sons and daughters of God is sheltered that no one can take away, within Christianity, within the houses, (is where) we have to cultivate inner freedom as part of the path of conversion in life.
González affirms that the true intention of the Catholic patriarch is to appeal to “that inner freedom so that through faith the path to freedom for Nicaragua can be sought.”
He reiterates that the pastoral letter, which is now part of the doctrine of the Church, between the lines carries a message “appealing to the freedom and hope of Nicaraguans.”
Dictatorship deprives Catholics of the rite of consecration of bread and wine, the highest expression of their faith
The dictatorship’s anti-Catholic crusade has decimated the Nicaraguan clergy. According to the most recent update of the report on religious repression, from the Nicaragua Never Again Human Rights Collective, since 2023 the regime has carried out four exile actions against members of the Catholic Church in which more than 50 religious (including 43 priests) have been banished and around 200 prevented from entering the country.
The most affected dioceses have been those of Matagalpa and Estelí, which were in charge of the former political bishop and exiled by the dictatorship, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez.
Given the lack of parish priests, as González explained, “what people are doing is, with the support of some religious men and women who are still working in the field, celebrating the word, that is, celebration, where the rite of consecration of “bread and wine,” something only a priest can do.
The Catholic journalist recalled that, for the faithful of the Christian church of Rome, the consecration of the bread and wine is “the body and blood of Christ” and that part of the rite of Catholicism is “the culmination (summit) of its faith”.
He added that due to the repression, the siege, the lack of parish priests, Catholics have locked themselves in their homes to pray the rosary, to read devotionals, to try to keep the flame of their faith alive, however, he lamented that “the population is leaving with a real need for pastoral accompaniment.
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«The siege and persecution is very great and, in addition, what this persecution also causes is tremendous distrust among Nicaraguans, because those of us who go to the parishes know who is who, we know in the neighborhoods who are supporters of the Ortega regime and having this presence of these people (spying on the homilies) is quite uncomfortable, because we know that they do not come by faith but rather they come to listen to what the priest is saying,” he noted.
In that sense, the communicator warned that the dictators Ortega and Murillo want to destroy the public presence of the Church and are leaving the population devoid of spiritual assistance because “what the regime seeks is to lower the morale of Catholics, but they are not.” achieving.
The Christian faithful resist and to solve this lack of priests they hold celebrations of the Word, devotions, they pray the Rosary, but the regime is trying to deprive them of the Eucharist, which for Catholics is the culmination (summit) of their Christian faith because it is the celebration of the “body and blood of Christ,” concluded the Catholic editor.
