At least 11 churchmen have been detained by police and paramilitaries over a weeklong assault in northern Nicaragua, depleting the already demoralised Diocese of Matagalpa — whose leader, Bishop Rolando Álvarez, lives in exile. Nine priests and a deacon were detained on Aug 1 and 2 — with some taken from parishes and parish residences Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Nicaragua’
‘Parishes are on their own,’ says Nicaraguan priest as regime’s repression targets diocese
Thursday, August 8th, 2024Jesuits in Nicaragua – expelled
Monday, August 28th, 2023
Jesuits in Nicaragua have been expelled from the country. Nicaragua’s government declared Pope Francis’s Society of Jesus (Jesuit) order illegal on Wednesday. All the Jesuits’ property and assets were confiscated. The government claims that’s because the Jesuits had failed to comply with tax laws. On Wednesday, the San Salvador-based Jesuit Province of Central America which Read more
Nicaragua’s Catholic Church: A nuanced conflict
Thursday, September 8th, 2022
The Catholic priest and poet Ernesto Cardenal was a moral figure of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, FLSN, the left-wing political party and guerrilla movement that ended the US-backed Somoza dictatorship in 1979. In 1990 Ernesto Cardenal resigned from the FLSN. Father Cardenal, who died in 2020, charged Daniel Ortega — the current dictatorial president Read more
Nicaragua shuts 7 Catholic radio stations
Thursday, August 4th, 2022
The government of Nicaragua has ordered the closure of seven Catholic radio stations linked to a bishop who has been critical of the country’s president, Daniel Ortega. Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who serves as the radio’s coordinator and leads the remote northern Matagalpa diocese, announced the closures on Monday. Álvarez said he had received a letter Read more
Ortega’s government orders dissolution of Mother Teresa’s order
Monday, July 4th, 2022
The Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta is being ordered to close in Nicaragua. Dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor, the Missionaries of Charity are among 101 non-governmental organisations the legislator wants to close. Some of the other Catholic NGOs in for the chop include the Catholic Foundation for Human Read more
Pope lifts sanctions on suspended priest
Thursday, February 21st, 2019
Pope Francis has lifted sanctions imposed on Fr Ernesto Cardenal of Nicaragua in 1984. On Monday, Archbishop Waldemar Sommertag, the Vatican nuncio in Nicaragua, said Pope Francis had “granted with benevolence the absolution of all canonical censures” imposed on Cardenal. Cardenal (94) was suspended from his priestly ministry and duties by St John Paul II Read more
Priest burnt in sulphuric acid attack during confession
Monday, December 10th, 2018
A 59-year old priest in Nicaragua has been injured in a sulphuric acid attack while hearing confessions. Fr Mario Guevara was taken to hospital to be treated for severe burns to his face, arms, and shoulders. The alleged attacker, 24 year old Elis Leonidovna Gonn, was detained by people in the cathedral as she tried Read more
Students seeking refuge in church killed, wounded
Thursday, July 26th, 2018
Students seeking refuge in a Catholic church in Nicaragua were shot at by police earlier this month. The armed police killed two students and wounded dozens of others. The students had been occupying the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua during two months of protests against President Daniel Ortega’s government. They were protesting particularly against Ortega’s Read more
Violence must end: Nuncio’s appeal made in Pope’s name
Monday, July 23rd, 2018
Violence in Nicaragua must end, say Catholic church leaders including bishops and the Apostolic Nuncio to Nicaragua. The Nuncio, Archbishop Waldemar Stanisław Sommertag, has appealed for peace in the Pope’s name. Violence has beset the country since April this year. “With all my human and spiritual strength, I appeal to the consciences of all to Read more
Nicaragua priest who defied Vatican dies
Friday, February 26th, 2016Fr Fernando Cardenal, SJ, a priest who defied the Vatican to be in the Sandanista government in Nicaragua, has died aged 82. Fr Cardenal was suspended from the priesthood after refusing to step down as education minister in the left-wing government, which he joined following the overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1979. Fr Cardenal, Read more