CV NEWS FEED // Pope Francis has selected exiled Bishop Rolando Alvarez to participate in the second Synod on Synodality, according to an X post from Auxiliary Bishop Silvio José Báez of Managua, Nicaragua, who himself has been exiled from Nicaragua since 2019.
An unofficial translation of the post reads,
I am very pleased that the Holy Father has appointed my brother bishop, Msgr. Rolando J. Alvarez, to participate in the second stage of the Synod on Synodality. His personal and pastoral experience will undoubtedly greatly enrich the synodal reflection. I accompany him with my prayers.
Bishop Alvarez has been in exile in Rome since January 14, 2024, CatholicVote reported. He had previously spent 500 days in a prison nicknamed “Ortega’s regime” after current Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. The Vatican negotiated his release from what would have been 26 years in prison.
Bishop Alvarez was arrested in 2022 after he refused to board a plane that would have taken him, along with 222 other political dissidents, to the United States. He argued he could not abandon his flock. At the time of his arrest, he told Bishop Báez that he “would not leave Nicaragua for any reason unless the Pope ordered him to do so.”
In May 2024, the International Republican Institute honored Bishop Alvarez with its highest award, the John S. McCain Freedom Award, for his commitment to religious freedom.
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