The most urgent, complex and ugliest diplomatic crisis of 2024 father It is probably the one that is dragging on in Nicaragua, where President Ortega continues his project aimed at neutralizing the social structures of the Catholic Church in order to control its “subversive activities” and make them hostile to his autocratic Sandinista regime . The repression continued even during the Christmas holidays, and another flood of priests were arrested simply for daring to speak out for human rights. The fate of Bishop Alvarez, who has been in prison since last year and has become a global symbol of the anti-Christian regime, is worrying. Christmas processions, live nativity scenes and public religious events were also strictly forbidden at Christmas. During these ten years, Pope Francis has tried in every way to maintain a good dialectical relationship with Ortega, but has had to give up in the face of the escalation that led to the closure of many Catholic schools and universities, the freezing of the bank accounts of religious institutes, the repression of religious orders , the expulsion of the Apostolic Nuncio and the interruption of bilateral relations with the Holy See. Pope Francis even resorted to the good offices of his friend, Brazilian President Lula (who maintains a “neighbourly” relationship with Ortega), but this diplomatic attempt also failed. Lula's mediation had no effect, while the regime in Nicaragua continued to suppress the Catholic Church.
Vatican, bishop hero returns to prison (and forgoes exile) so as not to abandon his people in Nicaragua
According to local media, five more priests were arrested in December, just before the start of the year. This brings the number of church representatives arrested in less than a week to 14. As the portal “100% Noticias” reports, citing the Nicaraguan auxiliary bishop Silvio Baez, who lives in exile in the USA, the five arrested clergy all come from the Archdiocese of the capital Managua.
President Ortega fires the Pope's ambassador for daring to defend political prisoners
“The Sandinista dictatorship unleashed a cruel hunt for priests this week, detaining several of them as well as two bishops who were already in prison,” said Baez, a bishop whom Francis asked to leave Nicaragua in 2019 for security reasons. The anger of Ortega's criminal dictatorship, which is mainly directed against the Church, does not stop, said Baez, calling on the rest of the world not to abandon Nicaraguan Catholics and to show solidarity with them. Ortega's wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, even declared that the Church's representatives – priests, bishops, cardinals – were practically “devils who sow hatred in Nicaraguan society.”
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Meanwhile, another bishop – Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega from the Diocese of Siuna on the Caribbean coast – was arrested by police after Christmas. He would have given a sermon in support of the already arrested and convicted Bishop Rolando Alvarez. Of course, there were international protests, including at the United Nations Office for Human Rights in Central America, which condemned the “enforced disappearance of Bishop Mora and the new wave of clergy arrests.”
“The clergy of Nicaragua write to Pope Francis to defend us from Ortega’s persecution”: a priest’s shocking manifesto
The crisis in Nicaragua was gradual and reached its climax in 2018 when students took to the streets against an incineration plant in a nature reserve that was allegedly tolerated by the left-wing government. The protests quickly spread across the country. The regime used brutal force to suppress the demonstrations. Priests and bishops opened their churches so that the demonstrators could find shelter from police bullets.
Pope Francis remains silent on the repression in Nicaragua, today the first hearing of the bishop fighting against Ortega takes place
In the first prayer of the year, the Angelus, Pope Francis expressed concern about a situation that seems to be spiraling in on itself and from which there is no way out: “I follow with deep concern what is happening in Nicaragua, where there are bishops and priests deprived of their freedom.” He then added that the search for peace “arises from truth, justice, freedom, love and dialogue.” But Ortega and his wife Murillo can't hear us at all in this ear.
It is dangerous to be a journalist in Nicaragua; there have been hundreds of attacks and censorships in the last six months
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on Il Messaggero