Mons. Silvio Báez, Auxiliary Bishop of Managua and exiled in the United States for some years, asked his compatriots to pray a lot this year 2025, asking God for the “miracle” of seeing Nicaragua liberated, prosperous and at peace.
“I recommend to you: let us not forget our country, let us not forget our people, especially in prayer. The moments we live in are of great uncertainty, of great darkness,” said the Nicaraguan prelate at the conclusion of the Mass he presided at St. Vincent de Paul in Los Angeles (USA) on Saturday, January 4.
Receive the main news from ACI Prensa by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social media. Subscribe to our free channels today:
I share with you some photos of the Eucharist that I presided with Fr. @EdwingRoman14 yesterday, Saturday, January 4, at St. Vincent de Paul parish in Los Angeles with the Nicaraguan community. Thank you for the warm welcome! God bless you! pic.twitter.com/c89Iw11Kfd
— Silvio José Báez (@silviojbaez) January 5, 2025
“It seems that all avenues of hope for a better future for our country have been closed, but that is not the case. History is in the hands of the Lord and He will allow Nicaragua to resurrect to a new life,” said the bishop in the Eucharist concelebrated by Father Edwing Román, a Nicaraguan priest also in exile.
“Let us not lose hope, let us not lose confidence and pray a lot this year so that the Lord grants us the miracle that all Nicaraguans long for in their hearts: to see our country liberated, prosperous, full of justice, full of peace, full of joy and fraternity,” exhorted Mons. Báez.
“May the Lord bless our beloved Nicaragua and may we soon see a change in freedom, peace and justice,” he concluded.
The words of the Nicaraguan bishop come within the framework of the very serious situation faced by the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, persecuted for years by the dictator Daniel Ortega and his wife and “co-president” Rosario Murillo.
The dictatorship of Ortega and Murillo has perpetrated countless attacks against the Catholic Church, such as the expulsion of nuns, the confiscation of property, the closure of the most important Catholic university in the country and Radio María Nicaragua, and the expulsion of dozens of priests of the country, including four bishops.
The latest installment of the report Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church, by exiled researcher Martha Patricia Molina, reported on December 29 of almost a thousand attacks perpetrated since 2018 by the dictatorial regime against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua.
Walter Sánchez 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.