On August 16, a gang of police from the Daniel Ortega dictatorship in Nicaragua descended onto a parish with the goal of arresting the pastor, forcing the parochial vicar to celebrate Mass outside the church.
The Santa Luca church in the Diocese of Matagalpa was called by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister news organisation of CNA. This morning, a number of police officers had come and were looking for Father Vicente Martn, the parish’s pastor.
According to a parishioner who asked to remain nameless for his own safety “and because we don’t know whether the phones are tapped,” the police showed up to the church around 5:55 a.m. local time on both the previous day and the day before.
Father Sebastián López, the parochial vicar, walked out and informed the police that Father Vicente was not in the church in order to protect the priest, the source said.
Therefore, the cops waited for the pastor outside.
The bells were rung once for Mass at 6:30 a.m., the source told ACI Prensa, bringing a sizable crowd of worshippers.
The guy said that the gates to the fence (which enclosed the open space in front of the church) weren’t opened since doing so would allow the police to enter and get access to the church.
Lopez said Mass outside the church using a table as a makeshift altar, with the faithful present behind the barricades. As riot police joined the cops in watching,
“Many people were praying, and many others were sobbing. You are not alone, many people stated,” the individual added.
There are nine additional persons living at the rectory, in addition to the two priests who serve the Santa Luca parish.
The Catholic Church has lately been under increased pressure and intimidation from the dictatorship.
Three priests attempted to visit the cathedral in Managua over the weekend to receive a duplicate of the pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima, but were stopped by the police.
The driver’s licence, the car registration, and the proof of insurance were all seized by the police when they searched the pickup truck that one of the priests was riding in. Another priest was taken into custody.
Rolando Lvarez, the bishop of Matagalpa, together with five priests, two seminarians, and three laypeople have been under house arrest there since August 4. Police are stationed all around the chancery, and drones are flying above to keep an eye on it.
The Nicaraguan national police accused lvarez in particular of “using the communications media and social media” to try to “organise violent groups, inciting them to carry out acts of hatred against the population, creating an atmosphere of anxiety and disorder, disturbing the peace and harmony of the community” in a press release that was released on August 5.
According to the press release, such activities “have the aim of undermining the State of Nicaragua and targeting the constitutional authority.”
The police force of the Ortega dictatorship said that it had already begun an inquiry “to ascertain the criminal liability of the concerned persons.”
“The persons under investigation should stay in their homes,” the statement reads.
Since his 15 years in office, Ortega has been openly antagonistic against the country’s Catholic Church. He claimed that bishops backed anti-government protests that his administration ruthlessly put down and were thus involved in a plot to overthrow him in 2018. The bishops have been referred to as “terrorists” and “devils in cassocks” by the president of Nicargua.
In less than four years, the Nicaraguan Catholic Church has been the target of 190 attacks and desecrations, including a fire in the Managua Cathedral and police harassment and persecution of bishops and priests, according to a report titled “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church? (2018-2022)” written by attorney Martha Patricia Molina Montenegro, a member of the Pro-Transparency and Anti-Corruption Observatory.
The primary switch to the cathedral’s electrical control system was stolen by unidentified thieves on August 6, leaving the building and its surroundings without electricity. Electricity has been restored by replacing the stolen switch.