The Blue and White National Unit (Unab) assured that the decision of the dictatorship to prohibit religious activities related to the celebrations of the Gritería, in honor of the virgin Immaculate Conception of María, is “unconstitutional” because Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo violate at least two articles of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Nicaragua.
On November 28, the Police at the service of the regime prohibited the San José de Tipitapa parish from celebrating the processions in honor of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, in the framework in which the Catholic Church of Nicaragua begins the novena to the Virgin.
The ecclesiastical authorities reported that they received a call from the police authorities in which they denied him permission to go out with the image to the streets of that municipality of Managua. They point out that, at the time of notification, the Virgin visited the first sector scheduled for last Monday.
Related news: Nicaraguan regime prohibits processions in honor of the Virgin Mary in Tipitapa
“Every person has the right to freedom of conscience, thought and to profess or not a religion. No one can be the object of coercive measures that could undermine these rights or be forced to declare their creed, ideology or belief, says article 29 of the Political Constitution”, recalled Marlon Caldera, member of the Political Council of the opposition organization in a video distributed to the media.
«The religious prohibitions in Nicaragua that the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship has imposed are unconstitutional, suppressing the citizens’ rights to profession of faith and free expression. The celebration of the Shouting in honor of the Immaculate Conception begins in the city of León in 1857 after the national war and extends to the entire country in the following years,” added Caldera.
He explained that the celebration of the Shouting is a religious celebration, patrimony of the Catholic people and of Nicaragua. In addition, he stressed that said tradition is not the property of a political party or government in power that “has used it for the exclusive purpose of political propaganda.”
While Ortega and Murillo prohibit the Catholic Church from carrying out its activities within the framework of the festivities in honor of the Virgin Mary, the regime ordered the installation of dozens of altars to the Immaculate Conception of Mary in its eagerness to maintain a critical discourse. He also extended his “religiosity” to the different departments of the country with the installation of altars and ordered the municipalities to organize activities this Christmas season and the end of the year.
In its authoritarian drift against the Church, which has intensified since 2018, the dictatorship has carried out almost 400 attacks against priests, seminarians, religious temples and laity in the last four years, according to the report. «Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?» of the lawyer and researcher Martha Patria Molina.
