At least 11 clergy have been detained by police and paramilitaries over a weeklong assault in northern Nicaragua, depleting the Matagalpa Diocese – whose bishop lives in exile. Source: OSV News.
Nine priests and a deacon were detained on August 1 and 2 – with some taken from parishes and parish residences – according to independent Nicaragua media.
An octogenarian priest was also detained on July 27 in the Estelí Diocese, where exiled Bishop Rolando Álvarez is apostolic administrator.
“The Diocese of Matagalpa practically no longer has any clergy. We’ve been expelled, pressured and forced to flee. Parishes are on their own,” said an exiled priest, familiar with the diocese.
“(The Church) has been attacked from all sides. They’ve removed clergy, they’ve frozen its accounts. The Church has survived,” he added.
But of the ruling Sandinista regime, he said, “Their ultimate goal is to exterminate the diocesean Church where Monsignor Rolando (Álvarez) is still bishop.”
The arrests reflected the deepening repression of the Catholic Church in the Central American country, which has careened toward totalitarianism.
President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosarillo Murillo, continue to crack down on dissent, close spaces for civil society and infringe on freedom of worship – with priests being spied upon and forced to watch their words during Mass.
The repression “stems from the deep insecurities of regime leaders who desire absolute control and seek to abolish independent institutions to do so,” said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas.
“The Church is among the last of these in Nicaragua and this helps explain efforts to bring it to heel.”
FULL STORY
‘Parishes are on their own,’ says Nicaraguan priest as regime’s repression targets diocese (By David Agren, OSV News)
