This message was issued on Nov 4, 2019 after a week where memorial events held for slain protestors and the release of political prisoners continued to be harassed by police, and even some gravestones were defaced. One of the defense lawyers for those arrested had her home sprayed with bullets.
Message of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Managua, No. 2
To the Catholic faithful and people of good will.
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the cause of justice, because the reign of heaven is theirs” Mat 5:10
On concluding the extraordinary missionary month, called by His Holiness Pope Francis, we feel that it is an essential part of our evangelizing mission, as a Church, to be messengers and promoters of peace and justice.
The objective of the mission is to prepare people to receive Christ: his values, his lifestyle toward the construction of the Kingdom of Heaven which is justice, peace, love, forgiveness, humility, serving our neighbor. Is this the society that we are building?
As Church we want to take words of consolation and strength to our brothers and sisters in the difficult situation that our country continues experiencing, subjected to violence, injustices and the ransacking of their goods.
The current social, political and economic crisis that we are experiencing has aggravated the situation of a society impoverished and pushed into extreme poverty, where it would seem that the other has ceased to have value, losing the right to live decently: high rate of unemployment, lack of basic education, lack of basic health services; all that reflected in many ways, like at the stoplights of our capital turned into a source of jobs for children, the elderly and the sick. The application of economic and tax policies (cost of electric energy, sliding devaluation of the currency), with which the current crisis is attempted to be avoided, are not an appropriate response to the economic recession that we are undergoing.
This is not how a nation is built, on the basis of fear and pressure. An environment should be created of trust, justice, freedom of expression in order to know the constructive criticism coming from broad sectors of society, the independence of the branches of government to avoid the concentration of power, a political culture that would think about the well-being of all, that would want to serve all, and not become a “modus vivendi” for my well-being or that of my group. It is important also that it be done with a social awareness that would allow the population to receive the benefits that they deserve. “A society that wishes and intends to remain at the service of the human being at every level is a society that has the common good — the good of all people and of the whole person — as its primary goal. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church 165.
Issued in the Office of the Archbishop of Managua on the fourth day of the month of November of two thousand nineteen.
Justice and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Managua