Angelus News | January 12, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 1

Parishioners pray at the Metropolitan
Cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua, last
March amid the suspension of diplomatic
ties between Nicaragua and the Vatican. |
OSV NEWS/REUTERS
NO PLACE TO TURN
As Nicaragua’s violent crackdown on Catholics worsens,
the US may be considering new ways to help them.
BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES
ROME — Following the arrests
of a second bishop and
several priests, the U.S. State
Department has once again included
Nicaragua in its list of “Countries of
Particular Concern.”
In a statement released Jan. 4, U.S.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken
said the countries on the list “engaged
in or tolerated particularly severe
violations of religious freedom.”
“Governments must end abuses such
as attacks on members of religious minority
communities and their places
of worship, communal violence, and
lengthy imprisonment for peaceful
expression, transnational repression,
and calls to violence against religious
communities, among other violations
that occur in too many places around
the world,” Blinken said.
According to the Reuters news agency,
Nicaraguan police arrested four
priests — Msgr. Miguel Mantica, and
Fathers Mikel Monterrey, Gerardo
Rodriguez, and Raul Zamora — in
their homes Dec. 30.
Their arrests, along with the Dec.
21 arrest of Bishop Isidoro Mora of
Siuna, were made after they publicly
expressed support for Bishop Rolando
José Álvarez of Matagalpa, who was
handed a 26-year prison sentence for
his public opposition to the government
of President Daniel Ortega
and his wife, Vice President Rosario
Murillo.
In a Jan. 5 op-ed published in the
Spanish newspaper El Pais, U.S.
Ambassador-at-Large for International
Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain,
said the Ortega government’s “heavy
hand extends beyond the Catholic
Church” and evangelical communities
have “faced similar wrath.”
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 23