They pray secretly: Nicaraguans turn their houses into temples

COSTA RICA (AP).— When his church stopped feeling safe, Nicaraguan deacon Francisco Alvicio made a plan with his congregation. Discreetly, they began to transform their homes into temples.

“If they persecute me in church, I have my Bible,” said the 63-year-old religious man.

Praying in secret was the last thing he tried before fleeing his country in October 2023. Like him, other evangelical pastors, Catholic priests and human rights organizations in Nicaragua have reported harassment, surveillance and detention of religious leaders in recent years.

“It’s not kind-hearted to go there with a gun,” Alvicio said from Costa Rica, where he now lives with his wife. “If they come to a church with weapons, uniforms, speaking loudly, it is to intimidate the people.”

The relationship between the government and Nicaraguan religious communities has been complicated since 2018, when President Daniel Ortega violently repressed a series of mass social protests.

Ortega asked the Catholic Church to serve as a mediator when tensions began, but the dialogue did not last long. After some priests provided shelter to protesters and expressed concern about excessive use of force, Ortega singled them out as “terrorists.”

Among evangelicals, only a few leaders have openly supported the president. Most congregations have avoided speaking out, but this has not saved several pastors from being arrested or hundreds of organizations from being canceled by the government.

In northern Nicaragua, where Alvicio was born, most of the indigenous Miskito community identifies as evangelical.

The Moravian Church – to which the deacon belongs – was established in 1849. And until its closure by government order last August, it had about 350,000 members.

For decades, Alvicio said, the Miskitos could freely profess their faith. The services were held on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Elders and children alike gathered in the temple, where reverends read the Bible and the ceremonies concluded with the singing of a hymn.

New rules

The situation changed when the government imposed new rules on his congregation. First, the payment of a new tax. Then, the replacement of a lamb that the church used as an image.

“We do not accept,” said Alvicio. “We cannot change a single article because the government wants to. The only way we have is that of God.”

Shortly after, strangers dressed in black began to appear at his temple.

Those fearful of attending public worship began choosing to stay home. Some read their Bibles in silence and solitude. Others, with enough chairs to transform their homes into makeshift churches, began to invite neighbors and leaders like Francisco Alvicio to pray together.

And so, changing houses daily, speaking quietly and meeting at 4:00 am to avoid detection, they maintained their closeness to God.

Evangelicals have also been affected by the Ortega government

According to CSW, a British organization that advocates for religious freedom in the world, violations of this right in Nicaraguan Christian communities have been less visible than those against the Catholic Church.

Anna Lee Stangl, head of advocacy at CSW, noted in a recent publication that this is due to several causes. Among them, the Catholic Church is a single religious organization whose structure extends geographically and has a clear hierarchy.

“The Protestant Church, on the other hand, is made up of different denominations and independent churches, some of which dominate in one part of the country and are absent in others, and which do not necessarily work together or communicate,” he wrote.

Similar violations

In both faith communities, the violations of religious freedom that their members report are similar: restrictions on religious services, prohibition of processions, invasion of temples by armed men, theft or destruction of sacred objects, and infiltration of informants.

“This year has seriously worsened the situation,” said Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who keeps a detailed record of violations of religious freedom in her country.

According to its latest report, at least 870 attacks were committed against the Catholic Church between 2018 and 2024. About 100 more were registered against the Protestant Church in the same period.

Additionally, the human rights organization Nicaragua Never Again establishes that at least 256 evangelical churches have been closed by the government in the last four years. By comparison, 43 Catholic communities have been affected by closures since 2022.

More than 200 religious have fled the country. About 20 have had their nationalities revoked and 65 have been charged with conspiracy and other charges.

The Nicaraguan government did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.

Pastor Jon Britton Hancock didn’t see it coming. How could he imagine that 11 collaborators of his church would be imprisoned if the Ortega government had given them the green light to operate for years? Hancock and his wife — both Americans and founders of Mountain Gateway Church — began working in Nicaragua in 2013. Two years later they sent their first missionaries and began collaborating with local pastors.

Over the next decade, they developed sustainable practices for marketing coffee, offered support to families affected by hurricanes, and organized massive evangelization campaigns. The last of these, Hancock said, drew almost a million people. But then everything changed.

In December 2023, 11 pastors and two lawyers from their church were arrested and their families did not hear from them for months. It was not until September 2024 that they were released on humanitarian grounds.

Hancock doesn’t understand what happened. Although his sermons were never politicized, he preached in Congress and the National Police. He held meetings with authorities and both Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, sent him notes congratulating him on the work of his church.

“I think the real reason is that the Gospel is a threat to totalitarian ideas,” the pastor said. “Love cannot flourish under control or coercion.”