The fear of ongoing repression by Daniel Ortega against the Catholic Church in particular, without sparing evangelicals, it has become so widespread that it silences criticism of the regime and even mentions of repression from the pulpit.
“The silence is getting deeper and deeper,” said Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who fled to the United States. Her work – in which she recorded hundreds of cases of ecclesiastical persecution – recently earned her an International Religious Freedom Award. International Religious Freedom) of the United States Department of State.
“If it is dangerous to pray the rosary in the street, it is extremely dangerous to file a complaint,” Molina declared.
“Many priests consider (that) if they report, there will be more reprisals against the community. We as lay people want them to speak, but the only alternative is the cemetery, prison or exile,” he added.
He counted 30 church desecrations in the last year, only a few of which were reported to the authorities. Recently, he learned of a priest who went to the police after a robbery at his church – only to be insulted and told he was a suspect.
“Life in Nicaragua is hell, because surveillance is brutal. “You cannot say anything that is against them,” said an exiled priest. Like him, most of the exiles interviewed for this article spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals against their families or communities in Nicaragua.
“The people are face down: ‘If they are doing that with the parents (priests), what are they going to do with us?’” added the cleric. He was banned from returning to Nicaragua, where he, like many priests and nuns, incurred the ire of the regime for providing shelter and first aid to the wounded when the Ortega regime violently repressed massive civic protests in 2018.
The riots at the time, which began against proposed cuts to social security, expanded to demand early elections and accuse Ortega of authoritarian measures, after hundreds of protesters were killed by security forces and allied civilian groups.
Like several Latin American regimes that have their roots in socialist revolutions, Nicaragua’s has had an inconsistent relationship with religious leaders for decades. But those protests triggered an escalation and a systematic attack on the Church in what the US Commission on International Religious Freedom calls a “campaign of harassment and severe persecution.”
Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who is also vice president, blame the clergy, whom they call “terrorists and coup plotters,” for supporting the civil unrest that, they claim, amounts to planning a coup against them. Clergy and lay observers say the regime is trying to suffocate the Church because it is still the rare critic who dares to oppose the state violence in Nicaragua and whose voice is respected by many citizens.
Censorship and pressure plan
The “unprecedented exile of critical voices” – from religious leaders to journalists and artists – in Nicaragua amounts to a “total censorship plan,” said Alicia Quiñones, who heads the freedom of expression organization PEN International in the Americas and the Caribbean.
It has become almost impossible to do independent reporting in Nicaraguahe added, citing the jailing last year of a journalist accused of “false information” after he covered an Easter celebration when public Catholic holidays have largely been banned.
“You can’t stand the pressure anymore,” said a priest who is now in the United States. Like others, he reports that mass attendees have begun to notice that there are people in the pews they have never seen before and fear that they are there to report any sign of opposition to the regime, even if it is just a prayer for the safety of the Clergy imprisoned in dangerous conditions.
In a country where more than 80% of the population is Christian – around 50% Catholic and more than 30% Evangelical, according to the United States Commission on Religious Freedom – the repression is profound both spiritually and materially.
It has affected not only clergy and religious orders, but also university students, minority and marginalized populations, and even small businesses in rural towns that depended on religious processions and festivals of patron saints – now often prohibited or performed only indoors – to obtain their income.
In November, Molina said many priests were even prevented from celebrating traditional masses in cemeteries for Day of the Dead, a major religious holiday throughout Latin America.
Closures and confiscations
Nicaragua’s Congress, dominated by Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front, has closed more than 3,000 non-governmental organizations, including Mother Teresa’s charity, creating a major gap in social services, especially in rural areas. . In addition to many diocesan assets, the regime confiscated the prestigious Central American Universitywhose Jesuit leaders had opened the doors to protesting students fleeing police and paramilitary attacks.
Despite growing fear, many worshipers continue to attend religious services where they are still available. In rural areas, especially, parishes and chapels have been left without priests, although seminaries still have students, so some faithful hope they can eventually replace those exiled or forced to flee.
Sent into exile
Many of the top leaders of the Catholic Church, including the Bishop Rolando Álvarezwho was imprisoned for more than a year, were released from prison and sent abroad to negotiate with the Vatican last month. A dozen imprisoned priests were also sent to the Vatican in October.
The Holy See offered few public comments on the situation, except to call for dialogue.
The auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Báez, is one of the most outspoken critics of repression in Nicaragua from the Miami area, where he resides after the Pope asked him to leave his country to avoid violent threats. In late January, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he was in the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis, who “showed me his interest and love for Nicaragua.” Many exiles argue that while negotiating the release of priests and other political prisoners marks progress, sending them into exile cannot become an acceptable practice.
“Banishment cannot be normalized,” said Dolly Mora, who was forced to flee to the United States, where she helps campaign against the practice along with other Nicaraguan activists. “It’s unfair like prison. The international community cannot say that it is okay for them to be expelled,” she concluded.
Without stronger protests from the Vatican and foreign governments, many exiles fear that any Church representatives left in Nicaragua will feel intimidated into accommodating the Ortega regime, which is now supported only by a minority of the clergy.
So they hope that continuing their denunciations of the repression and their documentation of every priest beaten and every tabernacle desecrated will lead to justice.
“What the dictatorship intends is to completely eliminate the Catholic religion, because they have not managed to get the church to kneel to them,” Molina said. “He’s not going to make it,” he said.
Source: With information from AP
