Nicaraguan dictatorship sees the Catholic Church as an enemy, say ICC evangelicals

International Christian Concern (ICC), a United States-based evangelical organization, notes in its 2025 global report that the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his wife and “co-president” Rosario Murillo considers the Catholic Church in Nicaragua “a political enemy of the state”.

In it Global Persecution Index 2025published on January 3, the group that emerged in the United States in 1995 notes that “around the world, authoritarian regimes are growing in their conviction that the free exercise of religion is a mortal enemy to their control of power.”

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“From China, which has refined and exported this perspective to the world, to Nicaragua, where the Catholic Church is seen as a political enemy of the state, dictators everywhere appear to have increased their focus on controlling religion or eliminating it.” of all Christendom,” warns the report, which reports on the persecution against Christians in 20 countries.

Furthermore, “Nicaragua’s attacks against the relatives of exiled priests highlight the growth of transnational repression and are a reminder that persecution is a global issue.”

The ICC text indicates that “the Nicaraguan population is predominantly Christian, with 50% Catholics and 33% Evangelicals. Despite this, since Ortega professes the Roman Catholic faith, the government has firmly opposed the place that Christian institutions occupy in society.”

In that sense, the report continues, the dictatorship has used the Ministry of the Interior for persecution against “hundreds of churches, aid groups and other religious organizations.” “According to the United States Department of State, the Nicaraguan government ‘revoked the operating licenses of at least 315 nonprofit religious organizations: 233 organizations belonging to an evangelical denomination, 38 linked to the Catholic Church and 41 from other denominational groups. ‘in 2023’.

“In many cases, the government confiscates the assets of the eliminated organization,” he adds.

After noting that attacks also occur against Christian schools, the ICC document regrets that “hundreds of people have been arrested for alleged opposition to the government, among them dozens of priests and other leaders. While some are released, others continue to languish in prison or have been exiled from the country.”

The testimony of a Catholic priest persecuted in Nicaragua

At an ICC-sponsored event in 2024 in Washington DC, a Nicaraguan Catholic priest, who was detained, beaten and imprisoned before escaping the country, shared his testimony.

Speaking anonymously for security reasons, the priest said that “every Sunday, patrol cars full of police park in front of the country’s Catholic churches” and “the faithful who attend the Eucharist on Sundays are photographed (and) the homilies spoken by the remaining priests are being recorded.”

According to the ICC, this type of surveillance is “very similar to that imposed by China on its religious communities,” a country that “maintains a close relationship” with Nicaragua.

What is ICC?

In your websiteICC notes that “since 1995, we have been helping the persecuted Christian Church around the world by providing assistance, advocacy and awareness, and striving to be faithful to our Lord and those who support us.”

“At ICC we are evangelical but not confessional. We affirm the Apostles’ Creed. We believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. We help persecuted Christians of all faiths. This includes Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox believers,” he adds.

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