Nicaragua: Processions Banned in Dissident City of Masaya

 In a statement, the Archdiocese of Managua announced the recent ban on processions in the city of Masaya.

(Managua) "For reasons of public security" processions in honor of Saint Jerome have been banned by the Nicaraguan National Police. He is the patron saint of the city of Masaya. As the socialist regime intensifies its persecution of the Church, it is backed by Pope Francis.

On Saturday, the Archdiocese of Managua announced in a statement: 

"The National Police of the city of Masaya has informed the religious communities and parish priests of the parishes of Masaya, San Miguel Arcángel and San Jerónimo that, for reasons of public safety, no processions are allowed on the respective feast days in this city."

The city of Masaya is 28 kilometers southwest of the capital and traditionally celebrates the longest patronal festival in Nicaragua, perhaps in the world, from September to December, in honor of Church Father Jerome.

In its statement, the Archdiocese of Managua invited parishioners “and those who devote themselves to the patron saint to remember that faith and devotion are treasures that we carry in our hearts and from there we cherish with them by virtue of ancestral heritage in our communities."

According to the archdiocese, the Masses, novenas, and liturgical celebrations will take place as planned. At the same time, the Archdiocese invoked the intercession of the Archangel Michael, St. Jerome "and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church and Queen of Peace", "to heal us from all evil with the medicine of God."

Masaya is a former Sandinista stronghold that revolted in April 2018 in the wake of anti-government protests against President Daniel Ortega's Sandinista regime. In the city, the demand for the resignation of Ortega and his government was raised for the first time after they used violence to put down the demonstrations.

Since then, the bishops have been called "putschists" and "terrorists" by the Sandinistas, and the Church has been opposed by the regime. Three bishops critical of the government had to resign, go into exile, or were arrested. On August 19, Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa was arrested after having been effectively under house arrest since August 4. Several priests and seminarians were arrested with him and taken to the infamous El nuevo Chipote prison brought to opponents of the regime. Pope Francis has not yet commented on the bishop's arrest. Sandinista circles had already interceded with the Holy See in the days when the bishop was besieged by the police in the episcopal Curia to have Francis appoint the bishop to the Roman Curia. The negotiations about a "deal" have not yet led to a result. According to this, the bishop will be released on condition that he leaves Nicaragua.

The anti-Church reprisals also included the ban on nine Catholic radio stations. Three Catholic television stations were removed from the service by the state media authority.

Processions have been banned in the past because the socialist rulers fear they could become a visible expression of criticism of the regime. Priests were besieged in their churches and the faithful were prevented from entering the church for Mass.

With the support of the USA, the Central American country was ruled by the Somoza family for 43 years. 43 years ago, the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza regime and seized power for the first time. After the collapse of the communist bloc, they were removed from it but returned to the government in 2006. Relations between the Church and the Sandinistas have been strained for 43 years. The reason for this is not least church circles which, as followers of Marxist liberation theology such as the three priests Ernesto Cardenal, Fernando Cardenal, and Miguel d'Escoto, allied themselves with the Sandinistas. 

Before the Sandinista Revolution, 96 percent of Nicaraguans professed the Catholic faith. According to the latest government information, it should now be only 56 percent. The number of non-denominational rose to 16 percent, and the proportion of Protestant free churches to 25 percent - a phenomenon that Pope Francis, who is described by dictator Ortega as a "friend", seems just as unconcerned as the persecution of the church. Not everything that the government is doing is good, Francis said last Thursday on the return flight from Nur-Sultan to Rome. At the same time, however, he announced that, according to his assessment, it was "not correct" to describe the totalitarian communist regime of the People's Republic of China as "undemocratic".

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image : Archdiocese of Managua/Facebook (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Has a Deal Been Struck with Sandinistas for Imprisoned Bishop Rolando Álvarez?

Yesterday the Nicaraguan police, better known as "Ortega militias", stormed the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa and arrested the bishop and several priests, seminarians and laymen.

(Managua) On Friday, Ortega militias stormed the curia of the Diocese of Matagalpa in Nicaragua and arrested Bishop Rolando Álvarez and eight others. Noters of solidarity come from other Nicaraguan dioceses and from the USA. The secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America announced a statement from Pope Francis for Sunday. Nevertheless, it is becoming apparent that this time there will be no papal condemnation of the persecution of the Church.

In July 2021, Pope Francis retired Msgr. Juan Abelardo Mata Guevara SDB, Bishop of Estelí and Secretary General of the Nicaraguan Bishops' Conference, who had been the most fearless critic of the regime among the bishops up to that point. Bishop Silvio José Báez, who was critical of the regime, had previously been summoned to Rome in 2019 to remove him from the country. Most recently, Msgr. Rolando Álvarez, Bishop of Matagalpa and since last year also Apostolic Administrator of Estelí, has followed in their footsteps.

In May, Bishop Álvarez went on a hunger strike to protest the repression by the Sandinista regime aimed at 'silencing' the Church. Since then, the climate between the regime and the church has intensified. A number of church organizations were banned, and Catholic radio stations closed.

Since August 4, Bishop Álvarez has been effectively held hostage by the regime, which has had the diocesan curia of Matagalpa besieged by the police. The bishop, some priests and seminarians and two laymen stayed in the building. Bishop Álvarez continued to raise his voice through social media.

Yesterday, Ortega stormed the curia and arrested the bishop, and everyone present.

The national police, dubbed the "Ortega militias" in the country, released a statement saying the bishop and his companions had to be taken into custody for their "destabilizing and provocative activities". The bishop was taken to his family home in Managua and placed under house arrest. His eight companions were transferred to the new El Chipote prison, built specifically for the Ortega regime's political prisoners and notorious for reports of torture. Among the eight prisoners are the priests José Luis Díaz and Sadiel Eugarrios, the two vicars of the Episcopal Church of Matagalpa, the priest Ramiro Tijerino, rector of the Catholic Juan Pablo II University, the priest Raúl González, the two seminarians Darvin Leyva and Melkin Sequeira and the layman Sergio Cárdenas.

El Nuevo Chipote, the infamous prison of the Ortega regime

As first became known, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua and Primate of Nicaragua, had surprisingly been allowed to visit his fellow bishop at the place of his imprisonment.

"The Pope's silence does not mean inaction"

One of the first reactions came from the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Rodrigo Guerra, a staunch Bergoglian who had traveled throughout Latin America for years to defend the controversial post-synodal exhortation Amoris laetitia and the opening of access to Communion. Guerra told Aleteia that Pope Francis would soon give a statement on the situation in Nicaragua. With this allowed at the Angelus are expected on Sunday. So far, Santa Marta has been silent on the Sandinista persecution of the Church - because Francis has great sympathy for socialist regimes. Ortega himself accuses the Church in Nicaragua of preparing a coup d'etat, but calls Pope Francis a "friend".

The euphemistic police communiqué

Rodrigo Guerra stressed that Pope Francis is "well aware of what is happening in Nicaragua". The head of the Church was “very well informed about Nicaragua and his silence does not mean inaction or indecisiveness, no, nothing like that. It means that work is being done on other levels. And of course, if the Holy Father thinks it wise, he will intervene.”

“I wouldn't be surprised if, after the imprisonment of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, the Pope will make a first statement, perhaps on Sunday when he will say the Angelus prayer. That wouldn't surprise me. But that is the external problem. The Holy See works mainly with discreet diplomacy.”

According to Guerra, he himself is involved in the matter, since there is no apostolic nuncio in Nicaragua. Archbishop Waldemar Sommertag had been effectively expelled from the country by the Ortega regime in the spring.

“Yes, they believe that politics is primarily made through speeches and that the absence of a public statement from the Pope means that the Holy See is abandoning the Nicaraguan bishops or becoming an accomplice to the dictatorships. No, it's not like that," says Guerra.

 

Guerra, who is Mexican himself, made a somewhat strange comparison with the Mexican Cristeros a hundred years ago:

"In this regard, we must be very careful, because that is not the most desirable direction: entering into an armed conflict with a government. On the contrary, we must always try to favor peaceful means, even if they are slower but less bloody."

 

It was not the Cristeros who had started an armed conflict with the Masonic government. It was the regime that wanted to brutally strangle and wipe out the Church. The Cristeros were the answer of a desperate people. They were crushed with brutal violence by the officially "liberal" Mexican regime under the indifferent gaze of the US, which otherwise intervened repeatedly throughout Latin America.

A negotiated deal?

Cardinal Brenes published a very low-threshold statement on behalf of the Archdiocese of Managua, in which he expressed his solidarity with "the sister diocese of Matagalpa" but did not mention those arrested - neither Bishop Álvarez nor his companions - nor the storming of the episcopal curia and the arrests.

From this it is concluded that the rumors that Cardinal Brenes, with the support of Santa Marta, negotiated a deal for Bishop Álvarez with the regime are correct. Accordingly, the bishop does not go to prison, but has to leave the country and go into exile. That is also the reason why Cardinal Brenes was surprisingly admitted to Bishop Álvarez: to tell him about the deal and to convince him of it. After Bishop Báez, who has lived in Florida since 2019, Monsignor Álvarez would be the second bishop to have to leave the country to avoid arrest. Nicaragua would lose another leading dissident voice. A victory for the regime. A bishop in exile, see Msgr. Báez, is less dangerous than a bishop in prison. Since Msgr Álvarez is too young to let him become emeritus like Bishop Mata Guevara, harsher measures were resorted to. With the bishop's exile, the Sandinista regime is able to maintain its climate of intimidation and deterrence. 

With that, however, the likelihood of the reaction from Santa Marta promised by Rodrigo Guerra, that Pope Francis would denounce the persecution of the Church and the Ortega dictatorship, has decreased significantly again. Will one price of the deal be that Santa Marta will continue to exercise restraint? You will know tomorrow.

In contrast to the US government, the bishops of the USA showed solidarity with the church in Nicaragua. The American Bishops' Conference noted that "threats to the Catholic Church in Nicaragua are increasing amid the local social and political crisis."

The background

From 1979 to 1990, the Marxist-revolutionary Sandinistas under Daniel Ortega and the Cardenal brothers ruled Nicaragua dictatorially with a mixture of communism and liberation theology. No sooner had the Eastern bloc collapsed than the Sandinista regime fell. 

Due to the quarrels between the bourgeois parties, Daniel Ortega managed to return to power in 2006 with only 38 percent of the votes, this time through a democratic process. Conveniently, before the polls were held, the electoral law had been changed so that someone with 35 percent of the votes could be elected head of state or government. Since then, Ortega and the Sandinistas have been determined not to be ousted from power a second time.

The systematically erected Ortega regime changed the constitution and the electoral law in his favour, abolished the de facto separation of powers, abused the judiciary to fight political competitors and used the police and army mercilessly against its own citizens. Hundreds of people were killed in the crackdown on civil protests in 2018. 

After the Sandinistas eliminated or brutally controlled the opposition, the Church attracted their attention because it was able to retain some leeway. The Church became the only free voice in the country, a situation that is intolerable for the Marxist rulers for reasons of power politics, especially for the superstitious and paranoid Rosario Murillo, Ortega's wife and also his vice president.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image : Articulo66/Google Maps/Policia Nacional/Curamanagua.org (Screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

The Reconciliation of Ernesto Cardenal

Ernesto Cardenal, with stole, during the first Mass after lifting his suspension a divinis.

The Catholic journalist Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña, one of the most well-known Spanish columnists and bloggers on Church issues, has never made a secret of his rejection of Marxist liberation theology and his criticism of their representatives such as Ernesto Cardenal. His grandfather had been murdered by the Marxists in the Spanish Civil War because, as a Catholic and an industrialist, he belonged to the "wrong" credo and the "wrong" class. He knows about what is supposedly meant well but can lead to wrong ideas.

Progressive Church circles celebrate the pardon of Cardenal by Pope Francis and take the opportunity once again to repeat their dislike of Pope John Paul II, who suspended Cardenal a divinis in 1984. This reaction was predictable and contains nothing new. How much more remarkable, however, is the conciliatory tone found by a hard critic of Cardenal like Fernandez de la Cigoña. The Spanish journalist sheds light on the extent to which the devout Catholic rejoices over anyone who returns to the full unity of the Church, and over any suspended or apostate priest who rightfully practices his sacrament of Holy Orders, even if he was once a harshly criticized opponent.

The video at the end of the article shows from minute 1:08 also Pope John Paul II’s meeting with Ernesto Cardenal, then Sandinista minister in Nicaragua. The gesture of the head of the Church clarifies the drama of the moment. He demanded Cardenal's immediate resignation as Minister of Culture, which he refused.

Here is the comment by Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña on the pardon of Ernesto Cardenal by Pope Francis in full:

Penalties waived against Ernesto Cardenal

by Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña

The penalties against Ernesto Cardenal have been lifted. That seems to me very good. He is 94 years old. He is in a hospital and looks very bad. It goes so far that it is not clear in the photos whether he is still fully conscious. Did he celebrate the Mass? Did he concelebrate? Whatever it is, it makes me very happy.

A priest of Jesus Christ who has been suspended for his political activities, minister of a Marxist government, communist, or whatever you wish to qualify it as, who has violated all the rules of the Church, is called by Pope Francis in articulo mortis [in the face of death] or almost pardoned. 

Blessed Mercy of the Church.

Like the Claretian priest and liberation theologian Pedro Casaldáliga, Cardenal was considered a poet. For me he was never a writer, this attribution was misleading. There is no merit in his literary work; on the contrary, it seemed to me right rubbish, which was crammed with the prevailing leftist thinking. He always seemed to me to be an eccentric who was especially concerned about his fame. But perhaps he was misunderstood, even though his life conveyed exactly that impression. All his Sandinista passion ended in a radical opposition to the system he advocated and which had cost him the suspension a divinis. He was really mobile like a donna. (1)

I read that a few years ago he rejected the pardon of the Church. In old age you may know it better, as in his now. So we want to believe that he has now reconciled himself with the Church before his conscience - and above all in the infinite grace of God, which overcomes all our weaknesses.

John Paul II raised his accusing finger against him as he had to. The criticism of the Jesuit Pedro Miguel Lamet, even now, is even more regrettable. Now if Francis generously offered his hand, then that is as it should be. He has not acquitted a Sandinista, but a priest from his past mistakes. Now he can look forward to the mercy of the Church. And we too. Today, Cardenal is against Daniel Ortega, though that does not matter anymore in his state of doubtful consciousness. When he expressed his opposition to the Ortega system, he was still conscious.

Because of his age and my age, I'm sure I'll never meet Ernesto Cardenal. If anything happened tomorrow, I would also devoutly ask him, "Bless me, Father." And I would be able to receive his blessings from him with the permission of the Church. That pleases me a lot.

The pictures say a lot about the Pope's mercy. At least this time.

There are a few more, but I hold back.

If someone thinks that you should not publish such photos, then please do not complain to me, but on the progressive websites Lamet and Religion Digital.

Text: Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña
Übersetzung: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Religion Digital (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

_________________________________________

(1) A play Canzone „La donna è mobile“ (The Lady is temperamental, fickle) in the Opera  Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi.

AMDG

Pope Sends Felicitations to Murderous Sandanistas

_{Papal sympathies for the Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega}

Edit: earlier, he called down divine wrath upon them.  What happened? 

(Managua) On August 30th, US columnist and native Argentinian Andrés Oppenheimer lamented Pope Francis' silence on the situation in Nicaragua. Oppenheimer called the papal behavior "shameful" and demanded an opinion on the "death of at least 322 people in the past four months in protests against the government." Other sources speak of over 400 dead killed by government units or paramilitary groups affiliated with the left-wing government. Meanwhile, it was known that Pope Francis would take a position, just not in the sense of Oppenheimer.

Anyone who has known the history of Nicaragua since the 1970s knows how much the local Jesuits and Marxist liberation theology had on the Sandinista revolution, the overthrow of Somoa and the establishment of a socialist dictatorship. In connection with Pope John Paul II's visit to Nicaragua in 1983, this break through the middle of the Church became particularly visible internationally. In the 1980s, the Western European New Left came up with enthusiasm for what was then the latest "socialist experiment.”

While the Jesuit and Minister of Culture Ernesto Cardenal in 1958 greeted John Paul II at the airport, sarcastically falling to his knees, he was greeted at the same time with a question that he defied the call to resign his ministry, as Church law prohibits clerics from the exercise of political office. At the adjoining Pope's Mass in Managua, the regime and its clerical supporters occupied the square in front of the Pope's pavillion with convinced Sandinistas who whistled and shouted at the Pope. That was the tolerance of Catholic Marxists towards the Pope.

In 1983, the Sandinists, whether clerical or anticlerical, and their European supporters saw the pope in Rome as an enemy. In 2018 they will see one of their own in him.

Tempora mutantur.

Greetings from Pope Francis to Comandante Ortega

As it is now known, Pope Francis actually commented on Nicaragua on August 31, a day after Oppenheimer's column, albeit quite differently from what the columnist had hoped.

Pope Francis sent a message of greeting to Nicaraguan Sandinista President Daniel Ortega via the Apostolic Nunciature in Managua. The occasion was the National Day, celebrated on 15 September, commemorating the 197th anniversary of the country's independence from Spain.

Yesterday, the "Comrade" Rosario Murillo, Vice President of Nicaragua and wife of President Ortega, "pleased" the public announced the contents of the papal letter.

"I deeply appreciate the wonderful, fitting letter of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, to Comandante Daniel Ortega and the people of Nicaragua. And we appreciate the attention of Lord Nuncio, with whom he sent us the letter of the Holy Father, that we might celebrate together in these days of the Fatherland and of the heart.”

And what exactly did Pope Francis write to the Comandante?

"His Excellency, Mr. José Danel Ortega Saavedra
President of the Republic of Nicaragua
Managua
On the occasion of the National Day of Nicaragua, I cordially greet all the sons and daughters of this beloved land and assure you of my prayer that Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, will grant you the graces of a brotherly reconciliation and a peaceful and united life together.
Francis PP. "

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Picture: MiL

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

What happened?