New York. The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, asked Nicaraguan authorities this Saturday to respect “freedom of worship” following the government’s repression against members of the Catholic Church in the country.
The Holy See is “particularly concerned” with “the measures adopted against the personnel and institutions of the church, which directly affect the sensitive issue of religious freedom,” the cardinal said at the United Nations General Assembly ( UN), in New York.
The cardinal urged the Ortega government to “adequately guarantee this freedom along with other fundamental rights,” before expressing the Vatican’s willingness to engage in a “respectful and constructive dialogue” with the country’s authorities.
On August 7, Daniel Ortega’s government expelled seven Nicaraguan priests from the country.
Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo accuse the Catholic Church of supporting the 2018 protests against the government that left more than 300 dead, according to the UN, and which Managua considers an attempted coup d’état sponsored by Washington.
The seven priests were part of a group of 13 religious who had been detained by Nicaraguan police days earlier in the city of Matagalpa, in the north of the country, according to the Nicaragua Never Again Collective.
From April 2018 to March 2024, there were at least 73 arbitrary arrests of members of the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations, according to the Nicaraguan journalist exiled in the United States Emiliano Chamorro.
In January, the Ortega government released two Catholic bishops, including Rolando Álvarez, and other religious and sent them to Rome.
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– 2024-10-05 09:11:00
