Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo this Tuesday, in one act in Managua (Nicaragua) this Tuesday. Cesar Pérez (EFE / Presidency of Nicaragua)
Daniel Ortega maintains his iron crusade against the Catholic Church. The Nicaraguan President this Tuesday afternoon addressed his criticism of Catholicism’s leadership, cataloging priests, bishops and even the Pope as “a mafia” who have “committed grave crimes and horrors.” Speaking on a national channel commemorating the assassination of Sandino, hero of Nicaragua, Ortega in Managua reiterated that “the papacy has given all its support [Benito] Mussolini, an ally of [Adolf] Hitler”. “The bishops, the priests, the popes are a mafia. Look how many crimes they have committed. Crimes because of absurd regulations presenting themselves as saints,” he added. The old guerrillas have unleashed a war against the Church and a bitter persecution of priests and bishops for criticism of his regime. The symbol of this religious persecution is the Bishop of Matagalpa in the north of the country, Rolando Álvarez, who was sentenced to 26 years in prison for a series of crimes including “treason against the country”, “undermining national integrity” and “spreading false news” and being held in a prison in Managua.
Álvarez is the most critical voice within the Nicaraguan Catholic Church. The priest has been harassed and persecuted by the police and the regime’s henchmen and has bravely resisted government attacks against him. Ortega has harshly criticized him on several occasions, but he vented his anger on the priest two weeks ago after the release of 222 regime political prisoners who were flown to Washington on a plane chartered by the United States government. The bishop refused to travel, for which Ortega accused him of “arrogance”. According to Church sources, on the same day the police removed the religious from the building where he was serving house arrest and took him to La Modelo prison on the outskirts of Managua. “Release them, I will pay their fine,” Bishop Álvarez said, according to Catholic sources, referring to the political prisoners who left Nicaragua. Ortega said Álvarez’s refusal to leave the country showed “the arrogant behavior of someone who considers himself the head of the Nicaraguan Church, the head of the Latin American Church.” Ortega confirmed that the bishop was transferred to La Modelo prison in a repressive decision “for failing to comply with the rules of the law.” The Church estimates that the regime has arrested a dozen religious, most of whom have already been released. The government has also expelled religious orders of foreign nuns and priests from the country, while others have been forced into exile, such as Bishop José Báez, who has also had his citizenship revoked. Different parts of the opposition accuse the Vatican of not being more critical of Ortega’s actions towards the church and its representatives.
Ortega appeared Tuesday afternoon surrounded by military chiefs, police and officials, and alongside his inseparable wife and Vice President Rosario Murillo. “What respect can I have for the bishops I met in Nicaragua if they were Somocistas,” Ortega said. I don’t believe in popes or kings. Who elects the Pope? When we talk about democracy, the people should first elect the city’s priests, the bishops and whoever has the most popular support, that should be the bishop. There would have to be a vote among the Catholic people so that the pope is elected directly and not the organized mafia in the Vatican,” Ortega affirmed.
The President has made a very special blend of the history of Sandino and that of Nicaragua with his personal history, comparing the life of Christ with his guerrilla and revolutionary past. “I was raised Catholic. I was baptized, I made my first communion and I was confirmed, but I never had any affection or respect for most religious,” Ortega explained to an audience made up of young people, public officials and members of the Sandinista Front, his party, composed . “What has remained in my soul is Christ, since I met him he has been the force that moves me and over time, seeing the injustices, solidarity with the poor, with people, conscious with the oppressed, inspired by Christ. Christ never dressed like the bishops or the pope, let alone lived in palaces like the pope. Christ was an example of humility and that’s why they murdered him,” he said. “I am a revolutionary thanks to Christ,” has settled the ex-guerrilla accused by human rights organizations and the UN of committing crimes against humanity with the repression that began in Nicaragua against the protests that began in 2018 and in which thousands of Nicaraguans demanded the end of his mandate.
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