Nicaragua has cancelled the legal status of Caritas in the Matagalpa Diocese in the latest attack against the Catholic Church in the country. Source: Crux.
The diocese is headed by Bishop Rolando Alvarez, a vocal critic of the regime currently in exile in the Vatican.
According to the decision published on Monday by Minister of the Interior María Amelia Coronel Kinloch, Matagalpa’s Caritas failed to present its financial reports between 2020-2023, and its directive board’s tenure expired in 2022.
The measure, which also impacted 14 other civic organisations – including a number of Christian churches – puts an end to a number of programs managed by Caritas aiming to support peasants and poor urban families.
Analysts have been pointing out that leader Daniel Ortega has been waging a strategic dismantling of the Diocese of Matagalpa since Bishop Alvarez confronted his regime in 2022, when he denounced the persecution that he was facing and announced a hunger strike.
In August 2022, agents of the regime broke into the episcopal residence and detained Bishop Alvarez and eight priests.
In February 2023, the bishop refused to board a plane with other political prisoners and go to exile in the United States. The act apparently infuriated Mr Ortega, and Bishop Alvarez was sent to trial the following day.
He was sentenced to 26 years in prison for treason and for spreading fake news. In January 2024, Bishop Alvarez was sent to exile in the Vatican along with 17 other clerics.
Since then, Mr Ortega has taken numerous measures against Matagalpa. These include the detention of seven priests and another priest of the Estelí Diocese – which is apostolically administered by Bishop Alvarez – at the end of July.
These measures are part of Mr Ortega’s revenge on Bishop Alvarez for his acts of defiance, said Felix Ríos Gadea, a former priest exiled in Costa Rica.
FULL STORY
In Nicaragua, Ortega shuts down Matagalpa’s Caritas (By Eduardo Campos Lima, Crux)
