Thirteen religious detained in Nicaragua as local Church loses priests to persecution

At least 13 priests, deacons and members of religious congregations have been illegally detained by the Nicaraguan government since early August, in what is the worst wave of persecution against the Church so far this year.

The recent arrests of 12 clergy members were reported by Nicaragua Never again (Nicaragua Never More), a group founded by seven Nicaraguan human rights activists exiled in Costa Rica in 2019. Most of the detainees reportedly worked in the diocese of Matagalpa, which Alvarez administers from his exile.

The arrest of the thirteenth cleric, Father Harvin Torrez, who heads the Matagalpa seminary, took place on August 5, according to local press.

In a statement released on August 3, Nicaragua Never again stresses that “many parishes have been harassed” and that there is no information regarding the current location of some of the detained priests.

In January, a total of 15 priests, two seminarians and two bishops – including Rolando Alvarez, Bishop of Matagalpa – were sent into exile in the Vatican.

RELATED: Nicaraguan Bishop’s Exile Was an Act of Persecution, Not a Triumph for Life

The group of 12 arrested clergy members includes the following people:

Father Ulises Vega and Father Edgard Sacasa, the two current administrators of the diocese of Matagalpa; Father Marlon Velasquez, vicar of the parish of Santa Lucia de Ciudad Dario; Father Francisco Tercero of the community of Solingalpa; Father Jairo Pravia and Father Victor Godoy, responsible for the parish of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, in Sebaco; Father Raúl Villegas, of Mexican origin, who worked in a parish in Matiguas; Father Antonio Lopez; Father Salvador Lopez; Deacon Ervin Aguirre; Brother Silvio José Romero; and Brother Ramon Morras.

THE Nicaragua Never again The statement highlights that the Catholic Church in Nicaragua has faced other intangible losses and forms of persecution, such as the cancellation of the legal status of Radio Maria, a station that had been operating in the Central American country for 24 years.

ON THE SAME SUBJECT: Radio Maria threatened with closure in Nicaragua after a punitive decree from the Ortega regime

“Since 2018, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has annulled the legal status of at least 419 civic organizations, Catholic and Protestant, and Catholic religious, Catholic nuns, workers in Catholic organizations and media, and lay people have been the main targets of state violence,” the letter states.

Nicaragua Never again The statement concludes by demanding the immediate release of all detained priests and 140 other political prisoners currently held in Nicaraguan penitentiaries, including 25 women.

Between February 2023 and January 2024, at least 34 priests were sent into exile by the Ortega regime, according to Nicaraguan media. ConfidentialThese losses correspond to a fifth of the number of priests the local Church had in 2020, Confidential said. Matagalpa, Siuna, Bluefields, Estelí and Managua were the most affected dioceses.

Matagalpa alone had lost 40% of its clergy by January 2024. According to lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, a Catholic activist who has been following the persecution of the Church from her exile in the United States, Matagalpa had 70 active priests before the regime’s decision. Today, there are only 22 left.

“The socio-political and religious situation in Nicaragua today is one of permanent and growing crisis,” said Alvaro Leiva Sanchez, leader of the Nicaraguan Association for the Defense of Human Rights (ANPDH), exiled in Costa Rica.

Leiva said human rights activists fear for the current conditions of detention of priests. Father Marlon Velasquez, for example, “was violently abducted by regime agents in Ciudad Dario and taken to an unknown location in Managua.”

“We can imagine that he and others are currently subjected to torture and illegal detention,” he added.

Father Erick Diaz, currently exiled in the United States, has published on X that all these events occurred “while the world was watching the events in Venezuela.”

“Almost all our clergy have been exiled, imprisoned, parishes are left to fend for themselves. Priests are innocent. Enough religious persecution,” he said.

Leiva Sanchez believes that “the Ortega regime has no limits and will continue to send the same message to society and to some segments that still dare to have a critical voice.”

“The Church is no exception to this situation. Today we have a decimated Church after the detention and deportation of so many clergy who have done nothing but denounce human rights violations in Nicaragua,” he said.

According to him, the Vatican is not providing the Nicaraguan Church with the necessary support. “The upper echelons of the hierarchy in Rome have adopted the same attitude towards the persecution in our country. I don’t see how it could support the Nicaraguan clergy,” he said.

ON THE SAME SUBJECT: “Deterioration of the situation”: persecution of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua

Photo: Panamanian Catholic priest Donaciano Alarcon (R) is greeted by a colleague before a mass at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on April 5, 2023. Alarcon was previously expelled from Nicaragua and taken to the border with Honduras, accused of carrying out a Holy Week procession without authorization. (Photo by DELMER MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images.)

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