Vatican: Pope Francis prays for the Catholic Church in Nicaragua on the day of the Immaculate Conception

Pope Francis expressed his special closeness and invited all the faithful to join in prayers for the Catholic Church and the people of Nicaragua, on the day of the Purísima, to whom he addresses “a cry of faith and hope.”

“On this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, I am particularly close to the Nicaraguans. I invite you to join in prayer for the Church and the people of Nicaragua, who celebrate the Purísima, as Mother and Patroness, and raise a cry of faith and hope to Her.”

“May the heavenly Mother be a consolation for them in difficulties and uncertainties and open the hearts of all so that the path of respectful and constructive dialogue is always sought to promote peace, fraternity and harmony in the country,” Pope Francis stressed.

With these words, the Holy Father joined and encouraged the initiative of the bishops of Central America who have called for today a day of prayer for Catholics in the country that suffers the repression and persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his wife. and “co-president”, Rosario Murillo.

On December 2, Pope Francis had expressed his concern for the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, with a letter in which he told them to be certain that faith and hope “perform miracles.”

The persecution against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua

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 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.

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.

Ukraine and those sentenced to death in the United States

Pope Francis also encouraged the faithful to pray for peace “in the martyred Ukraine, in the Middle East – Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, now Syria – in Myanmar, Sudpan and in every place where war and violence are suffered. I ask the rulers and the international community to reach Christmas with a ceasefire on all war fronts.”

The Pope also expressed his concern for those sentenced to death in the United States, a penalty that he declared inadmissible in 2018, with a modification in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“Today it comes to my heart to ask all of you to pray for the detainees who are on death row in the United States. I think there are 13 or 15. Let us pray that his sentence is commuted, changed. Let us think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death,” said the Holy Father.