The Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) and the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious (CLAR) announce, for this Tuesday, September 24, an international day of prayer for the Catholic Church in Nicaragua.
The day of prayer, points out Celam DNAwill take place from 6:00 p.m. in Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Peru (5:00 p.m. in Mexico and Central America), on the day the Church celebrates the Virgin of Mercy.
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CELAM has also launched the hashtag #AllWithNicaragua to participate in the day of prayer, when “in this sister nation the Church suffers the darkest chapters of its history.”
#LOULTIMO Latin America against religious persecution in Nicaragua. The Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) and the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious (CLAR) announce an International Day of Prayer for the Church of Nicaragua.
It’s a fight… pic.twitter.com/j00L5JES1j— Arturo McFields Tinder (@ArturoMcfields) September 23, 2024
“We pray that those who have power in their hands hear the cry of a people, for the thousands of migrants, for the Church that suffers in it the same pains of the Crucified, for the poorest and most vulnerable who are left alone,” the organizers point out.
What is happening in Nicaragua?
The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, his wife and vice president, persecutes the Catholic Church with increasing cruelty.
In addition to the banishment and expulsion of priests and bishops, such as Mons. Rolando Álvarez, Bishop of Matagalpa and Apostolic Administrator of Estelí, now exiled in Rome, there have been many attacks by the dictatorship against the Catholic Church.
On August 15, Martha Patricia Molina, lawyer and researcher, presented the fifth installment of her report Nicaragua: A persecuted Church? which accounts for 870 attacks by the dictatorship against the Catholic Church, from 2018 to July 2024.
On August 19, the Nicaraguan dictatorship canceled the legal personality of 1,500 NGOs, among which there were 678 Catholics and evangelicals, such as the fund for retired priests.
On September 3, the National Assembly of Nicaragua, controlled by Ortega, approved a reform of the Penal Code to punish those who commit crimes from abroad, a measure to keep Nicaraguans in the diaspora “quiet, in silence, without saying anything.” ”, as the former minister of education, in exile, Humberto Belli, points out.
On Thursday, September 5, the White House reported that 135 political prisoners were released and sent to Guatemala, including 13 members of the Puerta de la Montaña Christian church and several Catholic laypeople.
How to participate in the day of prayer for the Catholic Church in Nicaragua?
To participate in the event, you can register at this link
https://streamyard.com/watch/xfxAHAnt3RXQ
Or you can follow her on social networks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIPVsQ0WIMo&ab_channel=CelamTV
https://www.facebook.com/celam.oficial
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.