The priestly ordination of three deacons of the Diocese of Estelí, which was to take place through a homily scheduled for this Saturday, July 27, was cancelled, supposedly by orders of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
On Friday, July 26, Deacon Wendel Fuentes Chavarria, along with the religious men who would be ordained, shared a message through his social networks that the religious activity in which he would receive his priestly order was canceled for reasons “external” to the church, without explaining what those reasons were.
Along with Deacon Fuentes González, his colleagues in the faith Kelin José Martínez Rayo and Ervin Joel Hernández Umanzor would also be ordained priests, all from the Diocese of Estelí, of which the apostolic administrator is the Bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, who was first imprisoned, sentenced to 26 years in prison, denationalized and then exiled to Rome by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship.
“With a heart full of hope, joy and spiritual health, I want to inform you that the priestly ordination of this unworthy servant of the Lord has been cancelled for reasons that are still unclear, but which are external to our ecclesial life,” said Deacon Fuentes.
In the same message, the religious man who saw his dream of being ordained a priest blocked, encouraged the Catholic people to “continue praying for priestly vocations, we hope that God will soon allow us to serve this diocese more and better as priests.”
It was the dictatorship that prevented the ordination mass
For its part, the Matagalpa regional media outlet Mosaico CSI, which has covered all the events related to the Diocese of Matagalpa and Bishop Álvarez, reported on July 25, citing “an ecclesiastical source” that it was the police at the service of the dictatorship that prohibited the celebration of the priestly ordination Mass in Estelí, which was to be presided over by the bishop of the Jinotega diocese and president of the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference (CEN), Monsignor Carlos Herrera.
According to information obtained by the media, the police went to Father Frutos Valle Salmerón, who was appointed administrator ‘Ad Omnia’ of the Diocese of Estelí in the forced absence of Monsignor Álvarez, to tell him that “the ordination was not authorized.”
The Archdiocese of Nicaragua, headed by Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, and the CEN have not officially reported on the case of the ban. The news has circulated in the media that Catholic priests in Nicaragua have kept absolute silence on the situation in Nicaragua and the religious persecution of which the Church is a victim, due to a gag order issued by Pope Francis.
