Daniel Ortega celebrates his re-inauguration as president of Nicaragua, Jan. 10, 2012. / Cancilleria del Ecuador via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).Bianca Jagger, a human rights campaigner, is increasing awareness of the Nicaraguan regime’s persecution of the Catholic Church and urging Pope Francis to denounce the government’s targeted assaults on the believers.
In a statement earlier this week, Jagger said she was “deeply saddened and concerned … by the silence of the Holy Father.”
In an interview with Crux, Jagger, a Nicaraguan, indicated that the Catholic Church is one of the final objectives standing between Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo.
Ortega has been Nicaragua’s president since 2007, and he managed the removal of presidential term limits in 2014.
He was a member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which overthrew the Somoza regime in 1979 and battled right-wing counterrevolutionaries supported by the US in the 1980s. Nicaragua was also led by Ortega from 1979 until 1990.
The Ortega administration, which has long repressed Nicaraguan individuals, social groups, and the media, is now targeting the Church, according to Jagger.
Now that the administration has repressed independent journalists, political opponents, and human rights campaigners, people “understand that the great leaders of the country are members of the Catholic Church: the bishops, priests, religious sisters, and the laity,” Jagger stated.
Following the prohibition of an Our Lady of Fatima march by Nicaraguan police on August 4, the government imprisoned Bishop Rolando lvarez of Matagalpa, along with many priests, seminarians, and laypeople. According to Jagger, lvarez is still under house arrest as part of an endeavour to “declare war against the Catholic Church.”
In July, Ortega removed the Missionaries of Charity from the nation.
When questioned by Crux about Pope Francis’ silence, Jagger stated, “I am deeply saddened and concerned, surprised, by the silence of the Holy Father.”
Jagger has openly asked Pope Francis to intervene in the impending crisis in Nicaragua.
“I am appealing to him not to order Bishop Rolando Alvarez to leave the country,” she said, urging that “Getting rid of all the bishops and priests who stand up, who have the courage to stand up, is not the answer. The answer is to intercede, and speak up against the man who has declared a war against the Catholic Church.”
Bishop Silvio José Báez Ortega, an auxiliary bishop of Managua, has been in exile since 2019 at the order of Pope Francis.
The Vatican did not react promptly to CNA’s request for comment.
The far-left Ortega dictatorship is accused of corruption, voting fraud, imprisoning critical dissidents and journalists, and conducting severe human rights violations against the Nicaraguan people.
Both the present and past presidents of the United States have criticised Ortega’s actions. The Trump administration slapped penalties on the regime for the first time in 2018. President Biden signed the bipartisan RENANCER Act, extending sanctions and calling Ortega’s re-election in 2021 a “sham.”
Bianca Jagger is a former actress and the ex-wife of Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones’ lead singer, whom she married in a Catholic wedding in 1971. The couple separated in 1978, although Jagger remains a practising Christian.
“Once a Catholic, always a Catholic…
“Religion is a very important aspect of my life,” she told High Profiles in 2008.
Her previous engagement includes advocating for more widespread observance of the Latin Mass (TLM) in England.