In the first ordination carried out in the diocese of Matagalpa after the exile of its bishop, Mons. Rolando Álvarez, on Saturday, July 20, the president of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua ordained a new priest and 7 new deacons.
According to reports Diocese Media – TV Merced, the television channel of the diocese of Matagalpa, Mons. Carlos Enrique Herrera, also Bishop of Jinotega, celebrated Mass in the San Pedro Apóstol Cathedral of Matagalpa; in which he ordained Juan José Orozco Jarquín to the priesthood.
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Likewise, the prelate also ordained deacons Aníbal Hernaldo Vallejos Vallejos, Byron Antonio Flores Mejía, Celestino Eliécer Martínez Martínez, Ervin Andrés Aguirre Corea, Juan Dionisio Jarquín Díaz, Roberto Clemente Manzanares González and Saúl Antonio Martínez Obregón.
According to the Nicaraguan newspaper Mosaicthis is the first ordination that is carried out after the exile of Bishop Álvarez in Rome, last January.
The newspaper also specifies that the diocese of Matagalpa has lost 25 of the 60 priests it had in 2020, most of whom have been arrested or exiled by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo.
“Propagate the Kingdom of Christ throughout the Earth”
In his homily, in which he did not mention Bishop Álvarez, the Bishop of Jinotega highlighted that “it is always a source of joy for us as a Church that God continues to bless us with these brothers who have freely decided to give themselves to the Lord.”
“We cannot help but feel great sadness because we must recognize that, although there are people who want to hear good things, there is a lack of those who are dedicated to announcing the Good News and giving testimony,” the prelate highlighted.
“The Church was born with this purpose: to propagate the Kingdom of Christ throughout the Earth, for the glory of God the Father, and thus make all men participants in the saving redemption and through this order the entire universe toward Christ,” he stressed.
The mention or request for prayer by Bishop Rolando Álvarez, when he was besieged, imprisoned or under house arrest, would have been the reason for more than one priest to also be arrested or exiled by the dictatorship, as happened with Bishop Isidoro Mora, Bishop of Siuna, in December 2023; after which he was banished to Rome in January of this year.
Who is the exiled bishop Rolando Álvarez?
Bishop Rolando Álvarez, Bishop of Matagalpa and Apostolic Administrator of Estelí, is a well-known defender of human rights and critic of the Nicaraguan dictatorship, which since 2018 has intensified persecution against the Catholic Church in the country.
The latest attack perpetrated by the regime has been the cancellation of the legal status and expropriation of the assets of Radio María Nicaragua.
Bishop Álvarez was forced to remain confined inside his house since the beginning of August 2022, along with some priests, seminarians and a layman.
Two weeks later, when they were almost out of food, the police burst into the house and He was kidnapped and taken to Managua, where he was under house arrest.
In the midst of a questioned process, the dictatorship sentenced him on February 10, 2023 to 26 years in prison, accusing him of “traitor to the country.” Since then, he has been held in jail. The modelwhere the political prisoners of the dictatorship are sent.
A day before being sentenced, Msgr. Alvarez He had refused to get on a plane in which Ortega and Murillo deported more than 200 political prisoners to the United States.
He was finally deported to Rome, after mediation by the Vatican, on January 14, 2024.
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.