The Catholic priest Rafael Ríos Gadea, parish priest of the San Maximiliano Kolbe church, in the La Concordia municipality, in Jinotega, denied that in Nicaragua the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo carries out religious persecution and insinuated that the bishops, priests and nuns who have been imprisoned, banished or expelled from the country are criminals.
The parish priest, assigned to the Diocese of Jinotega, made the invocation to the Almighty during the ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of the national hero Benjamín Zeledón and in his words stated that in the country there is no persecution against the faith.
Ríos Gadea is the same priest who recently baptized Camila Ortega Murillo’s son and grandson of the Nicaraguan dictatorial couple.
According to the priest, who has been branded as a Sandinista fanatic, in Nicaragua there is no persecution against the Church, because “there is no religious hatred” and he added that what has happened in the nation against religious people is punishment for those who have committed crimes, insinuating that their brothers in faith who have been victims of the Sandinista regime have committed crimes and; For this reason, they have been imprisoned or expelled from their homeland and even stripped of their nationality.
«Let’s get out of our minds what many say that there is religious persecution in Nicaragua. Religious persecution occurs when it is due to hatred of the faith and anyone who calls themselves a child of God is persecuted. When a crime is committed and a crime is committed, the person who commits the crime pays, but it is not the Church,” said the priest.
According to the Catholic father of La Concordia, bishops Rolando Álvarez, of Matagalpa, and Isidoro de Mora, of Siuna, and the more than 250 religious among priests, nuns, deacons, lay people and delegates of the word, who have been expelled from the country Due to the dictatorship, they have committed crimes and for that reason they have been exiled.
“We are all the Church and today we have to thank God because thanks to heroes like Benjamín (Zeledón) today we are at peace, today we can pray to God and feel like children of God,” added the parish priest who has received an avalanche of criticism on social media. social where they have even called him “Judas” because they consider that he is betraying the Catholic Church.
“Let us give infinite thanks to God for this special moment, in our life, in our history, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen!”, blessed the priest Ríos Gadea before the board of the National Assembly and the deputies serving Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
«“Father Ríos is a Judas”
Following the words of priest Ríos Gadea, lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina, who has documented religious persecution in the country since 2018 in her research “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?”, called the religious man “Judas” and urged him to ask the more than 250 religious whether or not there is religious persecution in Nicaragua.
“Priest Rafael Ríos should ask the more than 250 religious who have been expelled (by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship) or have had to flee, whether or not there is religious persecution in Nicaragua,” said the researcher consulted by Article 66.
Molina added that the attitude of priest Ríos shows that “there are always tares in the wheat” and recalled that the priest has a career “exposed and known in his community and not because he is a good shepherd.”
«He is one of the few priests who works for the dictatorship. He is stuck in a bubble of indoctrination. He is a priest who makes war on his clergy, mainly on his bishop (Carlos Herrera). The Diocese of Jinotega has been attacked by the dictatorship, but he turns a blind eye and does not recognize it, but he also calls his brother priests criminals and also his superiors, bishops who are in exile and even the nuncio (Waldemar Stanisław ) Sommertag that was expelled by the dictatorship,” said Molina.
The researcher, through her social networks, also urged the parish priest of La Concordia to ask his superior, the bishop of Jinotega, Monsignor Carlos Herrera if the banished religious “have authorization to return” to the country.
«How unfortunate! In every group there is a Judas! “Father Ríos seems not to realize that even his bishop lives under siege and surveillance,” the lawyer remarked, referring to the constant siege that Bishop Herrera is experiencing by the repressive forces of the Ortega-Murillo regime.
