The Nicaragua government has dramatically escalated its repression of the Catholic Church and civil society, with more than 870 church attacks reported since 2018. Under President Daniel Ortega, incidents against the Catholic church have included arson, harassment and the arrest of clergy. This crackdown reflects the Ortega regime’s broader strategy to silence dissenting voices, particularly Read more
Eight priests have been transferred to a prison notorious for torture and deplorable conditions as the Nicaraguan regime again ramps up its repression of the Catholic Church. The churchmen were moved Oct 15 to El Chipote prison on the outskirts of the nation’s capital, Managua, after being held under house arrest in the National Seminary Read more
The Nicaraguan government has seized a prominent Jesuit-run university in the capital, Managua, in President Daniel Ortega’s latest effort to lash out against the Catholic Church. The Central American University (UCA) announced on Wednesday that all classes and administrative activities were suspended after a criminal court ruled its property and financial accounts were being transferred Read more
In a new attack against the Catholic Church, the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua cancelled the legal personhood and confiscated the assets of a congregation of religious women. Members of the Sandinista police “like criminals broke into the house of the Sisters of the Fraternity of the Poor Ones of Jesus Christ at Read more
The market researcher CID Gallup of Costa Rica has, in a new survey, listed the Catholic Church in Nicaragua as the most credible institution in that country despite being subjected to harassment and persecution by the Daniel Ortega regime. The survey commissioned by the Nicaraguan media outlet Confidencial showed that 48% of respondents consider the Read more
Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos was sent back to prison on Wednesday after negotiations between the Nicaraguan bishops and the government of dictator Daniel Ortega broke down, Nicaraguan news sources reported. According to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner, Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa in Managua, was released on Monday but Read more
Nicaraguan Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez was released from prison late on Monday, a diplomatic source said, marking a possible turning point in the government’s prolonged crackdown on the Catholic Church. The diplomatic source said on Tuesday that negotiations between the government and the country’s Catholic bishops were going on over Alvarez’s future, and the prelate Read more
A recent investigation by the Nicaraguan newspaper El Confidencial revealed that the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega has withheld more than half a million dollars that was donated to the Church in Estelí by the US bishops’ humanitarian aid agency Catholic Relief Services (CRS). The independent media reported on June 2 that according to sources with Read more
The Holy See reported on Saturday that the Vatican’s diplomatic headquarters in Nicaragua was forced to close. “Yesterday, March 17, the chargé d’affaires of the apostolic nunciature in Nicaragua, Monsignor Marcel Diouf, left the country for Costa Rica. The closure of the diplomatic headquarters of the Holy See occurred as a result of a request Read more
Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, was sentenced on Feb 10 to 26 years and four months in prison, accused of being a “traitor to the homeland.” In recent days, authorities have not disclosed where he is being held. The prelate, who refused to be deported along with 222 other political prisoners sent to the Read more