Religious freedom imperiled by Nicaraguan government

Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond
Clarion Herald

Over the last several months, the government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua has taken steps to suppress Catholic bishops and priests from celebrating the sacraments, and it has shut down hundreds of charitable organizations, including Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. What’s going on in Nicaragua?

Let me say first of all that Nicaragua is especially close to my heart. When I was rector of Notre Dame Seminary in the 1980s and ’90s, I often went to Granada, Nicaragua, with seminarians during the Christmas break for what we called the Acompaño program, which began through a connection with the Teresian sisters in New Orleans, who had a community house in Granada. The Acompaño program was intended to give seminarians a pastoral experience in mission. It was an experience both of feeding the poor and building humble dwellings for the poor. It wasn’t just digging with shovels and axes for the sake of work. It was an opportunity for seminarians to establish relationships with the people of Nicaragua who are so often forgotten. We brought the Eucharist to those who could not attend Mass, and priests on the trip also heard confessions and anointed the sick. It was wonderful to go to Nicaragua right before the celebration of Christ’s birth because Christ was born in utter poverty. Mary and Joseph were poor, and even though Mary was ready to give birth, they could not find a place to stay because no one would let them into their home. Jesus was born in a stable and wrapped in swaddling clothes. Those swaddling “clothes” were actually the rags inside the stable for the animals to lie down on. Going to Nicaragua gave us the sense of Mary and Joseph and the poverty they endured and the poverty in which Jesus grew up. Though this was not the Holy Land, it is a holy land and has so much to tell us about the life of Jesus and the importance of evangelization in mission dioceses in developing countries. Father Joe Krafft continued this tradition until it was unsafe to visit. We also operated in Nicaragua for many years the “Christ the Healer” program – started by Marianite Sister Bertilla McNeely – which encouraged medical professionals from the New Orleans area to travel to Nicaragua to provide expert medical care that wasn’t widely available there.

What exactly has happened in Nicaragua?

A lot. In early August, riot police dispatched by the Nicaraguan government placed the bishop of Matagalpa, José Alvarez Lagos, under house arrest. A group of police with shields and batons blocked Bishop Alvarez and six other priests from leaving their house. Bishop Alvarez has been one of the strongest voices questioning the policies of the regime, and he is now under house arrest in his mother’s home in Managua. The other priests and some lay people were imprisoned. The auxiliary bishop of Managua was asked by Pope Francis to leave Nicaragua in 2019 to protect his life. Other priests are also in exile. Ortega has been in power for 15 years and has grown increasingly hostile toward the Catholic Church. Just this past March, Nicaragua 

expelled the Vatican’s papal nuncio to Nicaragua, Msgr. Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag. The crackdowns also have spilled over into the political realm. In advance of the 2021 presidential elections, the government arrested potential opposition candidates and dozens of prominent journalists. Most recently, Ortega’s government has shut down more than 2,000 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and expelled the Missionaries of Charity. The 18 nuns who were serving the poor in Managua and Granada were forced to flee to the border country of Costa Rica, where they continue to serve the poor. Many of the NGOs are Catholic ministries such as Catholic Charities. The government also has shut down seven Catholic radio stations.

Are there any other countries in Central America that are suppressing the church to this degree?

No. The Central American countries near Nicaragua are Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Over the years, there have been many challenges in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, causing hundreds of thousands of their citizens to leave their countries. St. Oscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador in El Salvador, was killed in 1980. Costa Rica has been the exception. For many years, it has had a relatively stable political climate. The Church is not experiencing the persecution in these countries that is occurring in Nicaragua.

Christian persecution in 2022 is not isolated to one area of the globe.

Release International issued a report called “Persecution Trends 2022” in which it names five countries of “growing concern.” They are Burkina Faso and the Sahel Region, Nigeria, Afghanistan, North Korea and India. In Nigeria, about 17 Christians were killed every day in 2021. The main targets have been churches, church leaders and Christian communities. In Afghanistan, persons who convert from Islam to Christianity may be killed or tortured or even institutionalized under a diagnosis for insanity. Several states in India have passed laws prohibiting conversion of Hindus to Christianity or even acting in a way that might be construed as proselytizing. In America, we champion as a birthright our freedom of religion – which is not simply a freedom to worship privately every Sunday. Please continue to pray for persecuted Christians around the world as we prepare for Mission Sunday on Oct. 23.

Questions for Archbishop Aymond may be sent to clarionherald@clarionherald.org.