Twenty-two days after the kidnapping of Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, following the August 19 police assault on the Episcopal Curia, religious, opponents and human rights organizations continue to demand that the Ortega regime show the prelate.
One of the priests who lamented the arbitrary arrest of Monsignor Álvarez was Mgr Manuel Eugenio Salazar Mora, Bishop of the Diocese of Tilarán-Liberia, Costa Rica.
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“Where is my brother Bishop Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, Bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa?” asked the priest; he also recalled that it has been three weeks since the bishop “was kidnapped by the Nicaraguan National Police.”
Salazar Mora emphasized that the Bishop of Matagalpa is “a great pastor and prophet, walking with the Cross of Christ. Monsignor Rolando you are not alone, he participated in his suffering in a spiritual way and I know that in this unity Jesus is in the middle!».
So far, the Ortega Police have not updated the information on Monsignor Álvarez, the only thing that is known is what the same institution reported hours after the kidnapping, that the prelate is under house arrest, at the home of one of his relatives.
The Ortega regime has indicated that the religious’s arbitrary detention was to “recover normality for the citizens and families of Matagalpa.”
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In addition to the arrest of Álvarez, the Police keep five priests, two seminarians and one layperson behind bars of the Judicial Assistance Directorate (DAJ), in Managua, who accompanied the bishop for 16 days inside the Episcopal Curia that was besieged by the police and paramilitaries.
Guarded by police in a house on the road to Masaya
Although it is not officially known where Monsignor Álvarez is, a source revealed to Article 66 that the priest is at the home of some relatives, near the Cargill company on the road to Masaya.
«The house is located about 100 meters from the Cargill company, in the Los Madrigales region, it is a narrow road. There is a limit, it is the only elegant and large house in that area, there are three or four riot police, who are relieved at six in the afternoon. Every day a patrol full of police and cars with dark windows leaves, “added the informant.
Faced with this “uncertainty”, after the secrecy that the Catholic Church has also maintained about how Álvarez is, the bishop of Costa Rica urged the Catholic people of Nicaragua to continue praying.
“Let us not stop praying for Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, for his life and his ministry. Our Lady of Mercy, Redeemer of Captives, intercede for the Church in Nicaragua! Long live Christ the King!” the bishop concluded.
