(OSV News): At least 11 clergy have been detained by police and paramilitaries following 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 August 1 and 2—with some taken from parishes and parish residences—according to independent Nicaraguan media. An octogenarian priest was also detained on July 27 in the Diocese of Estelí, where Bishop Álvarez is apostolic administrator.
“The Diocese of Matagalpa practically no longer has any clergy. We’ve been expelled, pressured and forced to flee. Parishes are on their own,” an exiled priest, familiar with the diocese, lamented.
“(The church) has been attacked from all sides. They’ve removed clergy, they’ve frozen its accounts. The church has survived,” the priest added. But of the ruling Sandinista regime, he said, “Their ultimate goal is is to exterminate the diocesean church where Monsignor Rolando [Álvarez] is still bishop.”
The arrests reflected the deepening repression of the Catholic Church in the Central American country, which has careened toward totalitarianism. The president, Daniel Ortega, and his wife, vice president, Rosarillo Murillo, continue to crack down on dissent, close spaces for civil society and infringe on freedom of worship—with priests being spied upon and forced to watch their words during Mass.
The Diocese of Matagalpa practically no longer has any clergy. We’ve been expelled, pressured and forced to flee. Parishes are on their own
The repression “stems from the deep insecurities of regime leaders who desire absolute control and seek to abolish independent institutions to do so,” Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, observed. “The Church is among the last of these in Nicaragua and this helps explain efforts to bring it to heel.”
Signs of infighting have appeared recently with the regime “willing to go after its own” and “becoming more isolated and family-based,” Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said.
Church observers lack a cogent explanation for the latest attack on the Catholic Church, which followed a period of constant, low-level hostilities. It came amid turmoil in Venezuela—an ally of Nicaragua—where opposition supporters have flooded the streets to protest election fraud and the president, Nicolás Maduro, has repressed them with police and government-controlled goon squads.
Bishop José Antonio Canales Motiño of Danlí, Honduras, accused the Nicaraguan regime of “taking advantage of the distraction of what’s happening in Venezuela” to persecute priests in Nicaragua without international media attention, according to independent news outlet Despacho 505.
Sources pointed to the regime’s lingering disdain for Bishop Álvarez, who had become the face of the Nicaraguan resistance to rising tyranny, as motive for the ongoing attacks.
Sources pointed to the regime’s lingering disdain for Bishop Álvarez, who had become the face of the Nicaraguan resistance to rising tyranny, as motive for the ongoing attacks
The most recent assault on the Matagalpa church coincided with the second anniversary of the August 2022 detention of Bishop Álvarez, who was taken during a raid on the diocesan curia where he had been holed up with 11 colleagues for nearly two weeks as they protested the seizure of Catholic media outlets [Sunday Examiner, 21 August 2022].
The bishop was convicted on sham charges in January 2023 and sent into exile a year later—along with 18 other clergy, including Bishop Isidoro Mora of Siuna [Sunday Examiner, 19 February 2023]. Bishop Mora was detained after publicly offering prayers for Bishop Álvarez at a celebration of the Eucharist in the Matagalpa Cathedral. Bishop Álvarez has not spoken publicly since being exiled.
“The Ortega-Murillo dictatorship hates him and sees him as a dangerous man,” Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer in exile who tracks persecution of the Catholic Church, observed. “The dictatorship, with its illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional actions against the religious of the Diocese of Matagalpa, the only thing it shows is that it is pursuing a scorched earth policy.”
The removal of Bishop Álvarez from Matagalpa and the ongoing government attacks have left the diocese with a skeleton staff.
Nicaragua remains a fervently Catholic country. But signs have emerged of the regime removing Catholic symbols and changing streets with religiously inspired names.
