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CV NEWS FEED // Nicaraguan authorities have blocked Catholic priests from administering the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, or Last Rites, at public hospitals across the country.
The directive, issued by President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, has left many Catholic Nicaraguans unable to receive this vital sacrament during critical moments of illness or at the end of life, Zenit News reported.
Attorney and author Martha Patricia Molina, who wrote the report Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church? described the new policy as a direct attack on the Catholic Church’s ability to minister to its followers. According to Molina, priests are now being turned away at hospitals and told they are prohibited from entering.
Molina stated that the ban is nationwide, leaving Catholics across the country unable to receive the sacrament in their final moments. She called the situation “devastating” for the faithful.
The move is part of a broader pattern of ongoing repression against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, with Molina highlighting the continuous surveillance and harassment of priests. She reported that priests are monitored by police, with authorities collecting detailed personal information, including phone numbers to family names.
CatholicVote reported in August that persecution against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua has escalated dramatically under President Ortega’s dictatorial regime.
The institution Open Doors confirmed that under Ortega, Church leaders and followers are “frequent targets of government hostility and face prosecution, arbitrary arrests, unjust sentences, expulsions, forced exile, closures and confiscation of church properties they manage.”
CatholicVote reported that the Nicaraguan government has also targeted the country’s Catholic radio station, Radio María, revoking its legal status.
The persecution has led many clergy members to seek exile to avoid further intimidation, with 67 priests and religious figures recently having fled the country, Zenit News reported. They join another 255 religious, including 98 nuns and Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega, who have been forced to flee the country. 34 have been barred from returning.
