Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Managua (Agenzia Fides) - According to local press reports, Catholic priests will no longer be able to enter public hospitals to administer the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. After the expulsion of about a quarter of the priests who, until 2018, were officially recognized by the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN), who worked in the archdiocese of Managua and in the eight different dioceses of the country, comes a new "repressive measure" by the government.
This is reported by lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, exiled in Texas, from where she has been documenting attacks against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua for years (see Fides, 26/5/2023), citing anonymous sources from priests and lay people affected. "Before, they were allowed to enter to visit a single sick person; "But once there, the whole room was asking for the sacrament for people who were already close to death," Molina points out.
The Church in Nicaragua "is living its most difficult days in the last 500 years," because not even during the revolution of the 1980s has there been as much violence as there is today. "But the Holy Spirit will protect his church and it will survive as it has survived," says a priest who asks to remain anonymous for security reasons.
Although there is no record of any official document, this prohibition has caused sadness and indignation to relatives and the sick themselves, "who leave this world without receiving that last sacrament," declares the local press.
However, they cannot do anything other than file an anonymous complaint because, if they "complain publicly, they can be imprisoned, exiled or killed."
After the Angelus on January 1, 2024, Pope Francis had expressed his closeness to the "beloved people of Nicaragua." “I am following with great concern what is happening in Nicaragua, where bishops and priests have been deprived of their freedom. I express to them, to their families and to the entire Church in the country my closeness in prayer.” The Pontiff, after the Angelus on August 25, again asked for prayers for the Latin American country following the suppression of Catholic associations and the introduction of a tax on alms and donations from the faithful: “I encourage you to renew your hope in Jesus. Remember that the Holy Spirit always guides history towards higher projects.” (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 13/11/2024)
