(OSV News): Nicaragua has revoked the legal status of the Caritas chapter in the Diocese of Matagalpa and continued arresting priests and laity there, delivering another blow to a diocese decimated by the detentions and expulsions of clergy and the exile of its bishop to the Vatican.
The interior ministry has insisted that Cáritas de Matagalpa did not deliver financial reports between 2020 and 2023. It also alleged its board of directors’ term had expired in September 2022. Fourteen additional non-governmental groups were also stripped of their legal standing in the August 12 decision—nine of them through voluntary dissolution, according to the official daily, La Gaceta, where these decisions are posted—including several groups belonging to Protestant denominations.
The decision followed a wave of arrests mostly targeting the dioceses of Matagalpa and Estelí—where exiled Bishop Rolando Álvarez is bishop and apostolic administrator, respectively—in recent weeks with at least a dozen clergy detained [Sunday Examiner, August 11].
Seven of the priests were exiled to the Vatican on August 7, while one priest, Father Francisco Tercero, is still incarcerated and the whereabouts of Friar Ramón Morras and Friar Salvador de las Calabazas remain unknown. A deacon and a priest were released, according to independent Nicaraguan media, while another priest voluntarily left the country.
A pair of priests and two laywomen were subsequently arrested after the seven priests were exiled, according to independent Nicaraguan media.
An unconfirmed report emerged August 12 of police entering the St. Peter the Apostle Cathedral in Matagalpa and arresting administrative staff, according to Haydee Castillo, a Nicaraguan human rights activist
Father Denis Martínez was arrested as he travelled to celebrate Mass in the Diocese of Matagalpa, according to an August 11 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, by Martha Patricia Molina, an exiled Nicaraguan lawyer, who tracks Church persecution in the country.
Father Leonel Balmaceda from the Jesus of Charity Parish in the community of La Trinidad in the Diocese of Estelí, was detained on August 10, according to independent Nicaraguan journalists. The priests’ whereabouts remain uncertain.
Additionally, two laywomen, Lesbia Gutiérrez and Carmen Sáenz Martínez, were also arrested, according to exiled Nicaraguans, who remain in contact with sources in the country.
An unconfirmed report emerged August 12 of police entering the St. Peter the Apostle Cathedral in Matagalpa and arresting administrative staff, according to Haydee Castillo, a Nicaraguan human rights activist. However, a diocesan media outlet, TV Merced, posted on its Facebook account, “There has been no extraordinary police presence” at the cathedral, which it said was operating normally.
Nicaraguan journalist, Emiliano Chamorro, said on X that the Diocese of Estelí had 12 parishes without priests due to arrests and exile.
Six employees from the now-closed Cáritas chapter in Estelí were convicted on money laundering charges in December 2023. Its legal status was revoked the previous year.
