Bishops of Central America ask to pray for the Catholic Church in Nicaragua on the day of the Immaculate Conception

The Catholic bishops of Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala invited the faithful to participate in a great day of prayer for the Catholic Church in Nicaragua on Sunday, December 8, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, whom Nicaraguans celebrate like the Purísima.

“On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, Nicaraguan Catholics raise a praise of admiration, known as ‘the shouting’. With it, in Nicaragua and throughout Central America, the traditional Marian devotion, so rooted in the piety of our people, is expressed,” the bishops of Central America indicate in a statement published on November 29, at the end of their assembly.

The “gritería” is celebrated on December 7 in Nicaragua, on the eve of the feast of the Immaculate Conception, in which the faithful walk the streets and visit altars erected in honor of the Virgin Mary praying, singing and lighting fireworks or pyrotechnics. , while shouting “Who causes so much joy?” and responding “The Conception of Mary!”

In their statement, the bishops expressed their “deep solidarity and communion with the people of God in Nicaragua, who – many times – face a challenging reality.”

In the text, the prelates encouraged Catholics in each jurisdiction or parish to “unite in prayer to that cry of faith and hope, peace and freedom, which the faithful people direct to their Mother and Patron. Our thoughts are with you, Nicaraguan brothers. We fraternally join in his cry, which respectfully hopes to find a response.”

The bishops’ request came shortly before the letter that Pope Francis wrote to the Catholics of Nicaragua, in which he encourages them to be certain that faith and hope “perform miracles.”

The persecution of the dictatorship against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua

The tenacious persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his “co-president”, Rosario Murillo, against the Catholic Church, seems to have no end.

A few days ago the regime approved a reform of the Constitution that further restricts freedom of religion and expression in the country, already quite limited. Among the most controversial measures is a provision requiring that “religious organizations must be kept free of all foreign control.”

In mid-November, the Ortega and Murillo dictatorship expelled from the country the Bishop of Jinotega and president of the country’s Episcopal Conference, Mons. Carlos Enrique Herrera Gutiérrez, who had criticized an Ortega mayor who interrupted a Mass with loud music. , in front of the local cathedral.

Like him, other bishops, priests and bishops are constantly monitored, persecuted, kidnapped and even imprisoned in deplorable conditions.

Numerous members of the clergy have been deported from the country, taking away their Nicaraguan nationality and considering them stateless, as is the case of the Bishop of Matagalpa, Bishop Rolando Álvarez, exiled to Rome in January 2024 along with Bishop Isidoro Mora, Bishop of Siuna, 15 priests and 2 seminarians.

Under the communist regime, Catholics have been silenced and public expressions of faith, such as prayers for the persecuted or pastoral and spiritual activities, are prohibited.

Between 2018 and 2024, 870 attacks were recorded against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, according to the report Nicaragua: A persecuted Church?by the exiled lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina, which shows the seriousness of this crisis.