In contrast to the lack of a strong statement from the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua in reaction to the forced removal of the bishop of Matagalpa from his home and house arrest of his family, the clergy of Estelí where he also acts as Apostolic Administrator issued this strong statement about the government actions against the Church.
PRONOUNCEMENT OF THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF ESTELÍ
“No correction, when it is applied, is pleasant, rather it hurts; but later on, it produces in those who were corrected the fruit of peace and justice.” (Heb 12:11)
Señores of the Government of Nicaragua:
What is it that you want? What is it that you are doing? For 15 days you illegally detained in captivity the bishop of Matagalpa and Apostolic Administrator of our Diocese of Estelí, several priests, and several laypeople. Now what you did was nothing more than change the location of blockade that you had around the Curia. And you took to the famous El Chipote our brother priests and the lay people who accompanied the Bishop. You contributed to the exile of Mons. Silvio Báez, Fr. Edwin Román, you have ruined the life of Fr. Harvy Padilla, jailed Fr. Manuel de Jesús García, fabricating charges. You jailed Mons. Leonardo Urbina, without proof of any crime, you did not allow Fr. Idiáquez to return to the country, you have retained the passport of Mons. Silvio Fonseca, expelled the Sisters of the Congregation of St Theresa of Calcutta, cancelled the legal status of Caritás, Estelí, confiscated the Catholic University of the Dry Tropics, cancelled the legal status of the Fabretto Family. You kidnapped Fr. Oscar Benavides and took him to El Chipote. You have ruined the lives of Fr. Uriel Vallejos, Fr. Vicente Martínez and Fr. Sebastián, preventing his faithful from celebrating mass in the church. You removed from the television transmission grid the Catholic Channel of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua, the San José Catholic Channel of the Diocese of Estelí, the Catholic Channel of the Diocese of Matagalpa, seven radios from the Diocese of Matagalpa that contributed to evangelization. You expelled the Papal Nuncio!
You accuse the Bishop of Matagalpa and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Estelí of “trying to organize violent groups, inciting them to carry out acts of hate against the population, causing an environment of terror and disorder, altering peace and harmony in the community, for the purpose of destabilizing the state of Nicaragua and attacking the constitutional authorities.”
The incitement to hate and violence you started, when Mr. Daniel Ortega, in the official event for the celebration of July 19th in 2018 publicly accused some bishops of being coup supporters, terrorists and, since then, innumerable are the times in which you, who should be providing the example of civicism and respect, produced all types of expletives, offenses and defamation, now not just against the bishops, but also us priests. Our nature and peaceful pastoral mission have made us put up with such atrocities with patience. Such unfounded accusations like that of being coup supporters, because here there was no type of coup, because coups armies carry out, and here the army has not carried out a coup against anyone. It exists only in your minds. Here what happened in 2018 was a popular protest, which in the end what it left was an enormous amount of Nicaraguan youth killed, without forgetting about all those who died in Operation Clean up. Thousands and thousands of brother and sister Nicaraguans had to leave their country to be able to preserve their lives or to not end up in jail.
You accuse us of being road blockers, when you know well that what we did was a work of mediation preventing unnecessary deaths, helping the wounded, protecting the lives of brother and sister Nicaraguans! Since then you have injected hate, and thanks to God, our people are noble and do not let themselves be deceived and all this campaign of slander has not taken root in the hearts and minds of our good people, respectful of their Christian faith, of their servants the bishops and priests.
You are the ones who create terror and disorder in this country. Like the terror and disorder that you created in Matagalpa with that roadblock that you had around the bishop´s house. You blocked the free flow of traffic, the normal course of trade, the people who work honestly. You are the ones who have stained and altered the perception that the people have about the Police, who they compare with the [National] Guard of Somoza, because you force them to carry out Human Rights violations of the defenseless population; instead of being the sentinels of the people´s joy, you have turned them into a repressive and violent arm.
Our mission is evangelizing, pastoral, peaceful, by nature we are lovers of peace, a peace which is based in truth, justice, love. We preach the commandment of love that Jesus left us. We make an effort to reconcile people who you divide with your way of proceeding. We preach that it is possible to be brothers and sisters even though we may be different. We are faithful to the principal of unity in diversity. The word of God pushes us to be prophets and to defend the Human Rights of people. And to denounce every type of injustice. We do not kidnap people, we do not have human hostages, we do not fabricate crimes to jail people. The migration of our fellow citizens hurts us, the disintegration of families.
The Lord granted you the opportunity to assume government once again and to not repeat the errors of your first administration. But not only have you repeated them, but you have surpassed them. It is really unfortunate.
We call you to conversion and to quit ruining our lives, let us work in peace! Free the Bishop, priests and laypeople and the Lord will take pity on you, if you sincerely convert.
Respect the Constitution of the Republic! You do whatever you want with the law, you manipulate them, you create them by decree to imprison citizens. And remember: No one should be above the Constitution of the Republic! That which you are doing is fomenting disorder and terror in this suffering country.
Now, what the Bishop of Matagalpa does, who has not committed any crime, is an innocent person who has a peaceful conscience; what we all the priests of Nicaragua are doing. What you are doing to Bishop Álvarez, the Apostolic Administrator who Pope Francis chose for us, you are doing to all of us. You are persecuting the Church for its prophetic mission because it is the only one that is capable of denouncing your constant violations of human rights, forgetting that when you persecute the Church, in the person of its servants the bishops, priests, laypeople, it is Christ himself who you are persecuting (cf Heb 9:5).
We will continue praying so that the Lord might grant you his Holy Spirit and you can correct all these atrocities that you are doing to our Nicaraguan Church.
We feel strengthened with the closeness, pain, and concern of our Pope Francis, over the sufferings of the Nicaraguan Church. We know that we are always present in his prayers.
We are grateful to all the Episcopal Conferences who have been in solidarity with us and continue being so, with our persecuted Church, especially with our Apostolic Administrator, Mons. Rolando José Álvarez Lagos.
We are grateful to all the people throughout the world who have expressed their good wishes so that this crisis might be resolved in the best way possible and as soon as possible.
We reiterate our closeness and our unconditional support, not just to our Apostolic Administrator, the priests and laypeople, unfairly imprisoned, but to the rest of the bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua, who suffer firsthand the abuses which you have done to their brother in the episcopacy.
Fraternally,
Native diocesan clergy of the Diocese of Estelí, which includes the parishes of the provinces of Estelí, Madríz and Nueva Segovia.
In memory of Holy Queen Mary, on the twenty second day of the month of August of the year two thousand twentytwo.