Daniel Ortega says that the Catholic Church is a "perfect dictatorship" 1:10
(CNN Spanish) --
The Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Managua, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes Solórzano, expressed this Monday that the "dialogue" with the government of President Daniel Ortega should never stop, despite the increase in tensions between the Government and the Church During the last years.
Brenes gave statements to the Rome Reports portal after holding a meeting with Pope Francis during a meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (Celam).
“The Gospel tells us that we must always pray for those who criticize us, for those who say things against us, and generally we seek how to have a calm heart in the face of those things and pray.
The dialogue should never stop, we have experience, in Nicaragua there has been a war and dialogues have been held.
I remember that some time, one part (of the dialogue partners) was in a classroom and the other part in another classroom, and the bishop ran from one place to another like an angel of the news”, he expressed.
The UN expresses concern about attacks on the Church, the independent press and human rights defenders in Nicaragua
The Government of Nicaragua has not referred to any dialogue with the Church, an institution that it has pointed to as a coup, since the participation of the bishops in the first attempt at a national dialogue to seek solutions to the sociopolitical crisis that began in April 2018.
President Ortega said in a message to the nation on September 28 that the Catholic Church is the perfect dictatorship: "Who elects the priests? Who elects the bishops? Who elects the pope, the cardinals ?, How many votes?, who gives them? If they are going to be democratic, they should start by electing the pope, the cardinals, the bishops, the priests of each community, with the vote of the Catholics, let it be the population , but all taxes. It's a dictatorship, the perfect dictatorship."
Four priests, two seminarians and a layman remain in the National Police Judicial Assistance department and will face trial on December 1 for the alleged crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity.
This has been reported by the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), while the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, has been under house arrest in his family's home since August 19, investigating for allegedly forming violent groups that attack against stability and the authorities.
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Two other priests, Enrique Martínez Gamboa from the Diocese of León and Oscar Benavidez from the Espiritu Santo parish in Mulukukú, Siuna, are facing trial for conspiracy and spreading false news, according to Cenidh.
What is happening between the Ortega government and the Church of Nicaragua?
The Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua has not officially reacted to the charges against the priests.
In some pages managed by the Diocese of Matagalpa, the administrators ask for prayers for Bishop Alvarez and the detained priests, and demand their release because, according to what they say, they were only carrying out their work of evangelization.
Brenes, who traveled to Rome to present the results of the Church synod in Nicaragua, also referred to the priests who have decided to go into exile after denouncing the police siege, while other religious have been denied entry into the country without the authorities explaining. the reasons.
"We want to see what the Lord is asking of us, why these priests have not been able to return to Nicaragua, what they are discovering, what we discover... that perhaps the Lord is sending them another mission," the cardinal concluded.
For its part, the Cenidh —through its social networks— reacted this Monday to Brenes's statements about a possible dialogue: “Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, in Rome, has stated that 'the dialogue cannot end' But... when I start?
It is contradictory to us that he affirms that while in Nicaragua he remains totally silent in the face of the increase in persecution against the Church and its priests," the organization questioned.
Daniel OrtegaChurch