The Catholic Cardinal of El Salvador, Gregorio Rosa Chavéz, said Monday that he hopes the situation in Nicaragua will “normalize” so that citizens can “freely express their faith.”
“There is a lot of suffering in the Nicaraguan people, mainly in the Catholic people, they know that we are with them and we hope that it will soon return to normal so that there is true peace and people can freely express their faith,” the priest told journalists.
The Catholic leader called for the situation “to be resolved peacefully, for dialogue to finally be established so that we are all at peace.”
At the beginning of August, Rosa Chávez indicated that the “persecution” experienced by the Nicaraguan Catholic Church by government authorities is currently the “most horrendous case” of “martyrdom” in the region.
Related news: Church in Nicaragua lives “martyrdom and persecution”, affirms Cardinal of El Salvador
The Salvadoran religious’s statements come after the Nicaraguan Diocese of Siuna denounced on Monday the arrest and disappearance of one of its priests, amid tensions between the Ortega Government and the Nicaraguan Catholic Church.
“On the afternoon of Sunday, August 14, the priest Óscar Benavidez, pastor of the Holy Spirit Parish, was arrested in the municipality of Mulukuku, in the North Caribbean Autonomous Region of Nicaragua, the Diocese of Siuna reported in a statement.
For its part, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) stated that the priest was arbitrarily detained.
Benavidez is the third priest arrested so far this year in Nicaragua, and the ninth in police custody, including Bishop Rolando Álvarez and five other priests who have been locked up since last day 4 in the Episcopal Palace of the Diocese of Matagalpa (north).
Siuna was the first Diocese that offered its public support to Bishop Álvarez, whom the National Police accuses of trying to “organize violent groups”, although until now he has not offered evidence.
Related news: Salvadoran Cardinal describes Ortega’s repression against the Church as “horrendous”
The authorities of the Central American country have expelled a group of missionaries from the Mother Teresa of Calcutta order, closed eight Catholic radio stations, canceled subscription television programming for three Catholic channels, and entered by force and raided a parish.
President Ortega branded as “terrorists” the Nicaraguan bishops who acted as mediators of a national dialogue that sought a peaceful solution to the crisis that the country has been experiencing since April 2018.
The situation in Nicaragua was accentuated after the controversial elections last November in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with his main contenders in prison.
Relations between the Sandinistas and the Nicaraguan Catholic Church have been marked by friction and mistrust in the last 43 years.
