Nicaragua has banned Stations of the Cross processions in all the country’s parishes amid an offensive by the government of Daniel Ortega against the Catholic Church, which the president described last week as “a mafia.”
The Nicaraguan Police have communicated to the churches of the Central American country the prohibition of carrying out processions, although a specific reason or the duration of the measure has not been disclosed, according to various parish priests reported to the newspaper ‘Confidencial’.
“The Stations of the Cross will be considered, but inside the temple. The procession in the street will not,” parishioners in the parish community of the city of Matagalpa, in the center of the country, have assured the aforementioned media, detailing that the agents threatened to close the church if they carry out any type of procession outside of it.
There, the Police exercise strong surveillance after the arrest of the bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, sentenced by the Nicaraguan justice to 26 years in prison for the alleged commission of crimes of conspiracy and spreading false news.
Earlier, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega demanded “democracy within the Catholic Church,” calling it “organized mafia”, after Pope Francis criticized the recent sentence of 26 years in prison against the Bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez.
“They are a mafia, look at the crimes they have committed, how many crimes they have committed”, Ortega asserted, ironically about the respect he may have for the bishops he has met in Nicaragua since, according to him, “they were Somocistas”, followers of the Nicaraguan dictator Anatasio Somoza.
On February 10, the Nicaraguan Justice sentenced Bishop Álvarez to 26 years in prison, stripping him of his nationality, after refusing to leave the country along with 222 other political prisoners who were exiled from the country and sent to the United States.
After the sentence, Pope Francis spoke for the first time about the imprisonment: “The news coming from Nicaragua has saddened me very much, and I cannot help but remember with concern the Bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, whom I love so much.” .