Nicaraguan media reported this weekend that the regime of Daniel Ortega is contemplating the exile of Bishop Rolando Álvarez. The priest was arrested last Friday by the Nicaraguan Police, who accused him, without offering evidence, of trying to “organize violent groups.”
(Read here: This is Daniel Ortega’s crusade against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua)
According to the digital media Confidentialafter consulting analysts, exile would be the measure that least “has political cost” by the Ortega regime, since putting him in jail would be a “inconvenient option for the dictatorship”.
(See also: The state of the Nicaraguan bishop, critic of Ortega, detained by the Police)
The arrest of Nicaraguan bishop Rolando Álvarez is the most recent chapter in a particularly convulsive last year for the Nicaraguan Catholic Church with the Ortega government, who has branded the leaders as “coup plotters” and “terrorists.”
This year, the Sandinista government expelled from the country the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, and 18 nuns from the Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
They have also imprisoned seven priests, shut down eight Catholic radio stations and pulled three Catholic channels from subscription television programming.
The Police have also entered by force and raided a parish, preventing parishioners from receiving the Eucharist inside the temple and besieging other priests in their churches. Likewise, the Archdiocese of Managua was prohibited from carrying out a procession with the pilgrim image of the Virgin of Fatima.
Relations between the Sandinistas and the Nicaraguan Catholic Church have been marked by friction and mistrust in the last 43 years. The Catholic community represents 58.5% of the 6.6 million inhabitants of Nicaragua, according to the latest national census.
The Pope avoids referring directly to the bishop
Pope Francis expressed this Sunday his concern and pain over the situation in Nicaragua and asked for “an open and sincere dialogue” so that “the bases for a respectful and peaceful coexistence can be found”, although, in his call at the end of the Angelus prayer in Saint Peter’s Square, he did not refer to the arrest of the bishop
Alvarez.
“I closely follow with concern and pain the situation that has been created in Nicaragua that affects people and institutions, I would like to express my conviction and my hope that through an open and sincere dialogue, the bases for a respectful coexistence can be found and peaceful,” said the pope, who until this Sunday had not spoken about the situation in Nicaragua.
For his part, Bishop Báez, who has been out of Nicaragua for 40 months by decision of Pope Francis for security reasons, advocated for Álvarez, the priests and lay people detained, as well as for the 190 political prisoners.
“I want you to know that I am suffering a lot and praying a lot for you, for Nicaragua and for our Church,” he said.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
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