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
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
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
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
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
Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega has banned traditional public processions of the Way of the Cross during the Lenten season. The move escalates his crackdown on the country’s Catholic Church and political opponents. The Nicaraguan government has prohibited the processions from being held in public venues, with the ritual to be conducted only inside churches on Read more
A Nicaraguan Catholic bishop was sentenced to 26 years in prison and had his citizenship revoked by a court in the Central American country. The sentencing of Bishop Rolando Álvarez (pictured) occurred just a day after President Daniel Ortega criticised the bishop for refusing to leave the country with other political prisoners. Bishop Álvarez, of Read more
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega blasted Catholic leaders as a “gang of murderers,” in comments amping up persecution of the church and scorning Pope Francis’ call for dialogue in the Central American country. In a fiery address, Ortega took aim at Nicaragua’s Catholic bishops for promoting democracy as an exit from the country’s political crisis, alleging Read more
Nicaraguan police have banned a Catholic procession and pilgrimage in the capital of Managua on Saturday citing internal security reasons, the archdiocese said on Friday as the crackdown on the Church intensifies. In response, the archdiocese called for the country’s faithful to spend Friday praying and fasting and attend Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Read more