CV NEWS FEED // The Nicaraguan Diocese of Matagalpa now faces increasingly dire circumstances as the Ortega-Murillo regime continues to tighten its chokehold on the community that was home to the now-exiled Bishop Rolando José Alvarez.
According to an Aug. 10 La Prensa report, over 70% of priests and deacons from the Matagalpa Diocese “are forcibly outside Nicaragua,” and the dwindling number of clergy who remain do so “under siege and surveillance.”
In the most recent government crackdown which took place last week, Nicaraguan police arbitrarily arrested and detained as many as 12 priests from the Matagalpa diocese. Though the government has not released information on the prisoners, it is believed that the clergy are being detained in the Interdiocesan Seminary of Our Lady of Fatima in Matagalpa.
Lawyer and religious freedom advocate Martha Patricia Molina stated in the La Prensa report that the situation “has been completely chaotic,” since in addition to the kidnappings, “the other exiles, expulsions, and entry bans have caused a deficit in pastoral activity because they are left without pastors, without priests.”
“Without a priest, obviously, churches and temples are in trouble because there is no one to consecrate the elements,” she added.
According to Molina, there are now just 13 active diocesan priests, most of whom are foreigners “who could be expelled at any moment,” left to serve the diocese, which was last reported in 2022 to be home to about 628,000 Catholics.
Ortega “will not stop until the presence of the Catholic Church in that area is completely eradicated,” Molina said of the Diocese.
Molina reported that Bishop Álvarez’s former headquarters at the Diocese’s Episcopal Palace “continues to be occupied by the police,” which she claims shows the regime’s continued “hatred” towards the Bishop, despite the silence he has maintained since his exile.
She concluded: “No priest has made any reference to political issues for years in the diocese, but the hatred that the dictatorial couple has for Bishop Alvares makes him continue attacking the diocese.”
