Human rights activist Bianca Jagger (pictured) has called on Pope Francis to condemn the Nicaraguan government’s targeted attacks on the Catholic Church.
Jagger is among the thousands of Nicaraguan Catholics in constant vigil for detained Bishop José Álvarez who has been under house arrest in northern Nicaragua with 11 companions since 4 August.
“I feel a great deal of worry and helplessness. I don’t know how else to support Bishop Álvarez other than to use my voice, to join in prayer (for his liberation). He has been kidnapped,” she said in a 12 August interview with Catholic News Service from London. “He is a hostage of a government that has committed crimes against humanity.”
In a statement earlier this week, Jagger said she was “deeply saddened and concerned … by the silence of the Holy Father”.
Jagger, who heads a human rights foundation bearing her name, has long used her global recognition to defend the afflicted, particularly in Latin America.
The rights of women and girls and the environment are at the forefront of her UK-based Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation. However, she often has spoken against the spiralling situation involving her native country, the repression of the populace, the fraudulent elections and now the attacks against the Catholic Church to which she belongs.
It harkens memories of darker times in the region.
“The assassination of Monseñor Romero,” as Salvadoran St Oscar Romero is popularly known in Latin America, “had a great impact in my life” said Jagger.
St Oscar Romero spoke against the killing of innocent civilians and socioeconomic injustices perpetrated against the poorest sectors of the Salvadoran populace in neighbouring El Salvador. In 1980 he was fatally shot in a chapel as he celebrated Mass, a day after calling for a stop to government repression.
Modern-day Nicaragua in many ways mirrors that past, as priests, bishops and women and men religious have been attacked and harassed. Some have been expelled by the government of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, his wife.
When asked by Crux about Pope Francis’ silence, Jagger stated, “I am deeply saddened and concerned, surprised, by the silence of the Holy Father”.
Jagger has publicly appealed to Pope Francis to address the unfolding situation in Nicaragua.
“I am appealing to him not to order Bishop Rolando Alvarez to leave the country,” she said, urging that “Getting rid of all the bishops and priests who stand up, who have the courage to stand up, is not the answer. The answer is to intercede, and speak up against the man who has declared a war against the Catholic Church.”
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