Nicaraguan priest Denis Martinez, from the Diocese of Matagalpa, in northern Nicaraguawas arrested this Sunday by the National Police amid tensions between the government of President Daniel Ortega and the Catholic Church, denounced lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina.
«Another priest from the Diocese of Matagalpa has been kidnapped by the National Police while he was on his way to celebrate Holy Mass” this Sunday, said Molina on her social networks, author of the study ‘Nicaragua: A persecuted Church?’ and which follows these cases.
“This is about the priest Denis Martinez. Let us pray that his physical and psychological integrity is respected,” said the lawyer who is exiled in the United States.
So far, neither the Nicaraguan government nor the National Police have offered their versions of the allegations of these arrests, and they generally do not comment.
Is Ortega pressuring for the appointment of another bishop?
According to researcher Molina, “the Sandinista dictatorship intends to exterminate the presence of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Matagalpa.”
The Diocese of Matagalpa is led from exile by the denationalized bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was released from prison and sent to Rome last January.
Last Thursday, the Nicaraguan government reported that it had sent to the Vatican a group of Nicaraguan priests who, according to Catholic sources, were detained and under police surveillance at the Interdiocesan Seminary of Our Lady of Fatima in Managua.
The Nicaraguan priests sent to the Vatican last Wednesday are Edgar Sacasa, Ulises Vega, Marlon Velázquez, Víctor Godoy, Harvin Torres, Jairo Pravia and Silvio Romero, all from the Diocese of Matagalpa.
Political sources told EFE that the Ortega government is pressuring the Vatican to appoint a new bishop in the Diocese of Matagalpa and in the Diocese of Estelí.
Government sent seven priests to the Vatican this week
Last January, the Ortega government agreed with the Holy See to send Álvarez and Bishop Isidoro Mora to the Vatican, along with 15 Nicaraguan priests and two seminarians, whom it had deprived of their liberty.
Previously, on February 9, 2023, authorities released eight other priests and sent them to the United States, as part of 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners released.
On that occasion, Bishop Álvarez, who had been placed under house arrest, refused to board the plane, was sent to a maximum security prison, and sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison, stripped of his nationality, and his civil rights suspended for life, for crimes considered treason.
The sentence against the high-ranking official was handed down one day after he refused to board the plane that was to take him with 222 other ex-Nicaraguan political prisoners to the United States, which provoked the indignation of President Ortega, who on national television called him “arrogant,” “unhinged” and “a madman.”
Relations between the Ortega government and the Catholic Church are experiencing moments of great tension, characterized by the expulsion and imprisonment of priests, the prohibition of religious activities, and the suspension of diplomatic relations.
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2024-08-14 08:44:47
