Anyone have any insight on this?
Given that Ortega doesn’t capitulate to the US Government, I take media reports with a bit of skepticism.
Also given what has become of the Catholic Church, I’m not sure I give priests the benefit of the doubt any more.
I have the feeling that Ortega’s not quite as evil as he’s portrayed and this priest may not be as innocent, but who knows what to believe anymore?
Bishop Alvarez has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Ortega regime, and its crackdown on civil and religious liberties.
On 4 August 2022, Álvarez was prevented by government agents from leaving his house to celebrate mass at St. Peter Cathedral, effectively placing him under house arrest. It is believed that government forces did this because he “frequently lambastes the violation of human rights, religious persecution and abuses of power” by the Ortega government
https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2022/08/06/quien-es-rolando-alvarez-el-obispo-que-desafia-el-asedio-del-regimen-de-daniel-ortega/
Álvarez is bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and one of the most critical voices in the Nicaraguan Catholic hierarchy. His sermons frequently inveigh against human rights violations, religious persecution and abuses of power.
Both Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo accuse the Nicaraguan Catholic Church of supporting the citizen rebellion that began in April 2018, which they describe as an “attempted coup,” and they maintain a constant siege against some priests and bishops . Álvarez is one of the most visible faces. And persecuted.
This Monday, the Ortega regime ordered the closure of seven Catholic radio stations in the diocese of Matagalpa, and police forces stormed the Niño Jesús de Praga chapel, in the city of Sébaco, with the intention of seizing the Catholic radio equipment that it worked there.
According to a count by the Nicaraguan researcher, the lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, the Catholic Church in Nicaragua has suffered, until this week, more than 250 attacks by the Daniel Ortega regime and its supporters, including beatings of priests, desecrations to churches, armed attacks, burning and siege , among others.
December 13, Álvarez was charged with conspiracy “for undermining national integrity and propagation of false news through information and communication technologies to the detriment of the State and Nicaraguan society.” He was ordered to remain under house arrest.
on 10 February the government announced that Álvarez had been declared a traitor, stripped of his citizenship, and sentenced to 26 years in prison
Apologies for the long and detailed post above.
The bishop has criticised the socialist government of Ortega. For that the government branded him a traitor and sentenced him to 26 years in prison.
Some of the strikes against the faithful include the siege of the Church of the Divine Mercy in 2018.
Nicaraguan police and paramilitary actors riddled the church for 15 hours with bullets while 200 students, volunteers, religious leaders, and journalists huddled inside under gunfire that killed at least two people.
In 2020, one of Ortega’s agents threw a bomb into a cathedral in Managua, destroying a 400-year-old sacred icon of Christ.
Last year, Ortega dissolved hundreds of nongovernmental organizations and expelled 18 Catholic nuns from their missions in poverty-stricken areas of the capital. His administration also closed 19 Catholic TV and radio stations in 2022.
Coupled with the second-highest poverty rates in the region, Ortega’s passionate speeches about strength and nationalism are reaching fewer ears these days.
Some Nicaraguans believe that’s the impetus for Ortega’s crackdowns on the Catholic Church, since maintaining a vice-like grip on power means silencing dissent from any source.
“Bishop Alvarez is in prison simply because, from the pulpit, he expressed the following beliefs: ‘A Christian cannot have false neutralities. He who remains silent in the face of human rights violations has already decided,’” former Nicaragua presidential candidate and political prisoner Felix Maradiaga told the U.S. Congress on March 22.
But Ortega’s persecution of Christians isn’t limited to those who speak out against his authority. In recent months, Maradiaga said there had been incidents in which Sandinista police forbade Christians from receiving communion in the church.
Ortega is a former Sandinista revolutionary who helped end the Somoza family’s 44-year rule in 1979. He then ushered in a new era of extreme leftist rule via the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) with the support of Cuba and Russia.
“The FSLN was actually founded and organized in Cuba,” regional analyst and author Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat told The Epoch Times. “These totalitarian regimes see Catholic[s] … as the true spiritual and philosophical opposition to their designs.”