The dictatorship has expelled and forced more than 40 religious sisters to leave the country
By La Prensa, June 20, 2023
“Nicaragua has shattered all the limits that a civilized society can have in these times on diplomatic levels,” lamented the Honduran Bishop José Antonio Canales
In the context of repression of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo against their critics – dissidents, civilian population, including the Catholic Church – more than 40 religious sisters have been expelled or forced to flee the country.
According to the lawyer and researcher Martha Molina, who has specialized in the registration of attacks on the Catholic Church in the country, over the last five years approximately 41 religious sisters have been expelled, have not been allowed to entry the country, or have abandoned Nicaragua because of the inordinate persecution of the regime against the clergy and their members.
This figure is representative, clarified the lawyer, according to the cases that she has been able to document, because the “amount is higher than that” and warned that “in the coming days more will leave.”
Molina commented that “the sisters do not report this and keep silent every time an abuse against them occurs, and since in each congregation there are several sisters, it is more difficult to identify how many were expelled.”
This In contrast to what happens when a priest is expelled or goes into exile, which “is obvious to see because the parish is left without their pastor,” she explained.
Molina spelled out that the religious sisters who have been expelled belong to the Dioceses of Matagalpa, Jinotega, León and the Archdiocese of Managua.
Ecclesiastical sources also confirmed for La Prensa the expulsion and departure of several sisters from the country, who did not denounce or report whether they have been threatened or have received intimidation, they only report to the bishops of the Diocese where they are located.
“An incident without precedent” in the Central American isthmus.
For the Honduran Bishop of Danlí, Honduras, Mons. José Antonio Canales, what is happening in Nicaragua against the Catholic Church is unprecedented.
Canales is 60 years old and has been a priest for 26 years and said that he does not remember a precedent for the massive expulsion of religious, and even less that a Catholic country would expel the ambassador of the Pope.
“In other words, Nicaragua has shattered all the limits which a civilized society might have in these moments on a diplomatic level,” he lamented.
In terms of the religious expelled and in exile, according to Molina´s count from 2018 to 2023 there are now 44 who are outside the country, among them, three seminarians, three deacons, and the rest are priests, bishops, and even the Apostolic Nuncio, Mons. Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag.
Ortega has increased the expulsions of religious sisters
Molina recalled that the dictator Daniel Ortega has increased attacks against the Catholic Church in this second period when he has been in power since 2007, in comparison with the first government of the Sandinista Front of National Liberation (FSLN) in the 80s.
“In 1986 the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN) at that time reported about the expulsion of two sisters, but the quantity that we are seeing now is so enormous that it has no precedent in the country,” said the lawyer.
The Honduran Bishop reiterated that Nicaragua is experiencing unusual situations. “The international community is impacted by the fight of this family to remain in power and not have dissident voices within Nicaragua. Many countries have oppressed the opposition in thousands of ways, but remove them by plane, throw them into another country and take away their nationality, for example, this has left an impact even on leftist governments,” he commented.