Parishioners from the municipalities of Estelí, Madriz, Matagalpa, León, Managua, Nueva Segovia and Jinotega denounced, before Article 66that the homilies are being widely monitored by public servants and fanatics of the Sandinista regime, which orders them to be placed in the first and last rows of the temple pews to note down any mention that is critical or contrary to Ortega’s regime and to photograph the attendees.
The sources report that among the public officials who have been seen carrying out surveillance in Catholic temples there are collaborators from mayors’ offices, the Ministry of Education (Mined) and the Sandinista Youth. These, in addition to photographing the parishioners, constantly take images of the priests who officiate or assist at masses.
«Apparently each parish priest already knows about the strategy of the dictatorship, because there are good people who tell them, and that is why there is a great silence in the Church, not being able to relate anything with politics, issues of justice, peace and freedom in his homilies,” indicated one of those consulted.
In addition, he mentioned that these people who are sent to monitor are “attentive to the words of the parish priest, especially on Sundays when there is a larger congregation of faithful.”
The spies sent by Ortega, according to the consular parishioners, “are in all the religious groups of the Catholic churches” and are even integrated into activities that are directed by catechists, among them those related to the sacraments of First Communion, Confirmation and Missionary Childhood.
In some of the parishes of these municipalities, they pointed out, there are even priests who are constantly “accompanied” by police, who dressed in civilian clothes, follow them wherever they go.
In addition to constant surveillance, the parishioners warn that there are representatives of the Sandinista regime who instigate opinions about “politics”, in order to identify among the faithful “anyone who speaks badly” and thus “sign them and then coordinate with the CPCs of the neighborhoods the surveillance of everyone who spoke badly.
No procession in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe
The parishioners denounced that the parishes also have processions prohibited. Recently, those that would be held in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which is commemorated every December 12, were canceled.
They explained that some parishes, although the parish priests did not announce that they were prohibited as such, avoided calling them and only announced masses and processions or pilgrimages inside the temples.
Some parishes, where still between 2018 and 2021, processions were held, such as the San Rafael Arcángel parish of San Rafael del Norte, in Jinotega, and the San Isidro Labrador de Condega parish, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe parish and San Judas Tadeo parish, in Estelí, this year – without announcing the prohibition of street processions – they limited themselves to holding masses and processions in honor of the Virgin Mary within their temples.
