Video screenshot [Straight Arrow News/ YouTube]
CV NEWS FEED // Nicaragua’s government this week seized a Catholic seminary in the Diocese of Matagalpa and sent the students home.
Aleteia reported Jan. 23 that many of the seminarians were absent, away on Christmas vacation, when San Luis de Gonzaga seminary was raided. The seminarians may be able to continue their studies at an inter-diocesan seminary in Managua, Nicaragua.
President Daniel Ortega’s regime also confiscated Matagalpa’s diocesan retreat and pastoral center last week, with police forcibly removing employees and retreat participants.
Ortega has systematically targeted and persecuted Catholics. He imprisoned Matagalpa’s former Bishop Rolando Álvarez in 2022. The Bishop was exiled and sent to Rome in 2024.
Since Bishop Álvarez left for Rome, the Diocese has lost more than 60% of its clergy, according to Aleteia.
Ortega’s other persecutions include shutting down Catholic TV and radio stations, banning priests from administering last rites at hospitals, and sending religious orders out of the country.
CatholicVote previously reported that Pope Francis sent Nicaraguans a pastoral letter in December 2024.
“Do not forget the loving Providence of the Lord, who accompanies us and is the only sure guide,” he wrote. “Precisely in the most difficult moments, when it becomes humanly impossible to understand what God wants from us, we are called not to doubt His care and mercy.”
