Dictators Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have attacked the Diocese of Matagalpa with particular hatred and have so far succeeded in decimating the diocesan clergy, reducing their number from 62 to 28 priests.
A priest forced into exile by the dictatorship, quoted by the Catholic News Agency (ACI-Prensa), recently stated that the drastic reduction of priests in the Diocese of Matagalpa has been the result of the “hatred and fury” of the dictators Ortega and Murillo against Bishop Rolando Álvarez and the Diocese under his charge.
The same priest pointed out that the Nicaraguan dictators cannot stand Bishop Alvarez because “they could not subdue him, not even with exile, because they assume that the bishop continues to shepherd the two dioceses, and they do not want that.”
The Diocese of Estelí has not had a bishop since mid-2021, following the resignation of the previous bishop, Monsignor Abelardo Mata, due to age. For this reason, the Vatican appointed Álvarez as Apostolic Administrator of the Estelian episcopate.
Chronology of the “anti-Christian war” of Ortega and Murillo
Bishop Álvarez has been one of the most resolute critics of the excesses of the dictatorship, which has earned him the animosity of the dictatorial couple and, according to the exiled priest, this motivated the tyrannical couple, in the midst of the anti-Christian crusade against the Catholic Church throughout the country, to direct their cannons of hatred mainly against Matagalpa and its bishop.
And so, the tyrants began to decimate the Matagalpa clergy. On January 10, 2021, the regime prevented the return to the country of Brother Miguel Parra, a Venezuelan religious who was serving at that time as one of the vicars of the San Pedro Apóstol Cathedral in Matagalpa. They also did not allow the Salvadoran priest, Brother José Lemus Aguilar, who worked in the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish, to enter Nicaragua.
A wave of exiles followed. In August 2022, the dictatorship ordered the arrest of Father Uriel Antonio Vallejos, of the Jesús de la Divina Misericordia parish in Sébaco, after which he was forced into exile.
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Between August and September of that same year, four priests were forced to flee the country in the face of the repression against the church ordered by Ortega and Murillo. In January 2023, three more priests went into exile, and a month later, exactly on February 9, 2023, the dictatorship exiled 222 political prisoners to the United States, including five priests, three of whom are from Matagalpa: Sadiel Eugarrios, José Luis Díaz and Ramiro Tijerino.
Among those exiled was Father Oscar Benavides, who until recently had been part of the Matagalpa clergy. Also included is Deacon Raul Vega, who was ordained a priest on May 11 of this year in Rome.
Two priests who were studying outside of Nicaragua were added to the list of those prevented from entering the country in 2023.
In October of that same year, the regime exiled another 12 priests to Rome. In January 2024, one more went into exile. And immediately afterwards, in that same month, Bishops Álvarez and Isidoro Mora, from Suina, and 15 more priests, including 3 from Matagalpa (Óscar Escoto, Jáder Guido and Fernando Calero) plus two seminarians, were also exiled to Rome.
Among the repressive actions carried out by the dictatorship to decimate the Matagalpa clergy was that of August 2 of this year, when the priest of Mexican origin and member of the Misio Y “Serviam” Fraternity, Raúl Villegas, was arrested and his whereabouts are still unknown.
On August 7, the dictatorship exiled seven priests to Rome, six of them from Matagalpa: Edgard Sacasa, Ulises Vega, Marlon Velásquez, Víctor Godoy, Jairo Pravia and Harvin Tórrez.
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Finally, on August 11, Father Denis Martínez was kidnapped by the Sandinista Police, and on August 15, Father Danny García, in charge of the San Juan Bautista parish in Muy Muy, Matagalpa. The regime has not accounted for them, so they are considered to be in a condition of “forced disappearance” at the hands of the Ortega-Murillo regime.
In the case of the Matagalpa Diocese, church reports indicate that, during 2023, a priest decided to retire from service and four more died. Of the 62 priests that Matagalpa had, only 28 remain, because in total the dictatorship has banished, prevented from returning to the country or forced into exile 29 religious members of the Matagalpa clergy, including its bishop.
Parishes closed and without priests: not even the bells ring anymore
Catholic religious communities, mainly from the mountains in the north of the country, have denounced that the siege and threats by the police have caused various ecclesiastical groups to stop meeting in churches and to stop ringing the bells for mass in the 28 parishes of the Diocese of Matagalpa.
“The 28 priests who remain active are not enough to serve the faithful in the same number of parishes, which in total have 630 rural communities,” the Catholic news agency said.
