The ruthless persecution of the Nicaraguan Church by the regime headed by Daniel Ortega and his powerful wife, Rosario Murillo, is placing Pope Francis in an increasingly uncomfortable position before public opinion for not publicly denouncing the serious abuses.
Or, to put it more directly, more and more criticism is being received for its silence, along with organizations and personalities They demand a clear and forceful condemnation.
The 26 former heads of state and government that make up the group called the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA), including Mauricio Macri, joined this Thursday.
Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, the bishop arrested by the Daniel Ortega regime in Nicaragua. (AFP)
Far from appeasing, the persecution does not stop escalating and complicating the pontiff even more.
The violent arrest in the early hours of this Friday of the Bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Alvarezfive priests, three seminarians and two lay people after being held in the local bishopric for 17 days, surrounded by police forces, was the latest in a saga that promises to continue.
A saga that began in 2018, during the protests for a reform of the health and pension system that were fiercely repressed and that caused numerous deaths. The Church not only denounced the repression, but also sheltered protesters in its churches.
In the midst of attacks on temples, in 2019, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Jose Baeza severe critic of the regime, at the request of the Pope, initially settled in Rome (today he lives in the United States).
While the Apostolic Nuncio in the country (the papal ambassador), Waldemar Somertag was virtually expelled in March.
A few days ago, a hundred humanitarian NGOs and charitable groups were also kicked out on the grounds that they were complying with regulations against crimes such as money laundering.
Among them were the nuns of Mother Teresa. While masses inside the temples and processions were prevented.
The criticism of Francis led the secretary of the Vatican Council for Latin America, the Mexican Rodrigo Guerra, to go out and tell the press that “A papal silence does not mean inactivity or lack of decisionno, none of that: it means that work is being done on other planes”.
“At the moment that the Holy Father sees fit, of course, he will have an intervention,” he said. And he added: “I would not be surprised if after the imprisonment of Bishop Alvarez, maybe on Sunday (when he prays the Angelus) he will give us some first comment. But the Holy See works mainly on discreet diplomacy.”
Guerra questioned the former presidents who demand a statement from the Pope. “They believe – he maintained – that politics is done mainly through speech and that if there is no public declaration, it is that the Holy See is abandoning the Nicaraguan bishops or is becoming an accomplice of the dictatorship.”
At the same time, he warned that “an exalted statement in these contexts can easily lead to undesirable consequences.” Between them, the expulsion of 400 foreign religious who must renew their residence monthly.
Beyond the discreet efforts that Guerra alludes to, the Vatican preferred for now that the condemnation come from the Episcopates of Latin America, jointly through the Latin American Episcopal Council (Celam) or individually, as they have been doing.
The Argentine Church joined this Friday with a public letter to the Archbishop of Managua, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenesin which he expresses the concern of the Argentine bishops and advocates for the Church in Nicaragua to fulfill its mission “without restrictions.”
For now, the strategy of discreet diplomacy is not working. And the cost for the image of the Pope is very high.