Bishop Rolando Álvarez declared during a recent pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Divine Child in the Matagalpa Diocese, Nicaragua, that prayer “is what will save Nicaragua” and called for a “crusade” in the upcoming months.
Since 2018, when protests erupted and were later put down by police and paramilitaries, more than 400 people have died, the nation has been mired in a political and economic catastrophe.
“On behalf of all my brother priests of our blessed and beloved Diocese of Matagalpa, I want to call each and every one of you to (join in) a crusade of prayer and adoration for our Church, our priests, and our beloved Nicaragua,” the prelate said July 17 during the pilgrimage’s closing Mass.
According to Álvarez, the crusade would involve daytime fasting on the first Friday of the month, which is a day set aside to honour the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A thousand Hail Marys should be prayed as a devotion by the faithful on the days of the Virgin Mary’s upcoming feasts, and the Holy Rosary should be done at 5:30 a.m.
The bishop cited several Marian celebrations, including the Nativity of Mary (September 8), the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (August 15), the feast of Our Lady of Mercy (September 24), the feast of the Virgin of the Miraculous Medal (November 27), and the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (December 8).
After Mass at St. Peter’s Cathedral, the multitude of pilgrims set out on their trek early in the morning.
The journey took more than three hours, according to the Diocese of Matagalpa’s Facebook post, and it involved a 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) walk to the Shrine of the Divine Child at Fuente Pura.
Many individuals, families, children, and young people from all regions of the country attended the event, which was held after two years of coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
The pilgrims came to express gratitude for benefits received and to request assistance from the Divine Child.
The next pilgrimage is slated to take place on July 16, 2023.