Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Managua (Agenzia Fides) - "You have until December to leave the country," was the warning to all religious sisters in Nicaragua, who will be forced to seek refuge in countries, mainly in Latin America, where their respective Congregations are already established.
After the recent arrest and expulsion of the President of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua and Bishop of Jinotega, Carlos Enrique Herrera Gutiérrez, on the evening of November 13 (see Fides, 16/11/2024), the Ortega government is now also issuing an ultimatum to the few religious sisters still remaining in the country.
"The nuns have already been banned from working in non-profit organizations (see Fides, 18/1/2024), now all their property is being confiscated and most of them have already left Nicaragua," complains Nicaraguan lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, who documents the attacks against the Catholic Church from her exile in Texas.
Most recently, in November, three priests were denied entry into the country. Among them, Father Asdrúbal Zeledón Ruiz from the diocese of Jinotega and Father Floriano Ceferino Vargas, who was arrested by agents of the regime after a mass in the church of San Martín in the diocese of Bluefields, a suffragan of the archdiocese of Managua, and exiled to Panama.
“The loving providence of the Lord is the only sure guide,” writes Pope Francis in a letter to the “pilgrim people of God in Nicaragua”, on the occasion of the novena for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (see Fides, 2/12/2024). “It is precisely in the most difficult moments, when it becomes humanly impossible to understand what God wants from us, that we are called not to doubt his care and mercy. The trust you place in him as children of God and your fidelity to the Church are the two great beacons that illuminate your existence,” said Pope Francis.
According to estimates in a report prepared by Martha Patricia Molino entitled “Nicaragua: ¿Una Iglesia perseguida?”, more than 250 religious have been expelled from the country or forced into exile since April 2018. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 11/12/2024)
