The staging of spectacles outside of places of worship escalates the repression against Catholics in Nicaragua, where regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, have branded priests and bishops as "terrorists" and "coup mongers," while curtailing public
Catholics turned out in large numbers to celebrate Holy Week in Nicaragua. But the ruling Sandinista regime prohibited public exhibitions of faith -- such as processions and reenactments of the passion of Christ -- as it continued exercising control over religious activities
Former Vice President Mike Pence condemned Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's anti-Catholic persecution in comments at a religious freedom summit in Washington Jan. 30, arguing the U.S. should alter its existing trade agreement with that government if its religious persecution continues.
Human rights defender Bianca Jagger has accused the Nicaraguan dictatorship of creating a spiritual vacuum in the country by its purge of Catholic clergy.
Jagger said the Jan. 14 expulsion of two bishops, 15 priests and two seminarians to the Vatican was part
Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa has been released from prison and sent into exile along with 18 imprisoned churchmen as the Nicaraguan government expelled its most prominent critic, whose presence behind bars bore witness to the Sandinista regime descent into totalitarianism, along
The Pontifical Mission Societies and Aid to the Church in Need are urging Christians to pray for peace in Nicaragua amid a crackdown on the Catholic Church and the imprisonment of priests and bishops.
The two organizations are convening a novena to the
The U.S. Department of State has demanded the release of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa and other imprisoned Nicaraguan religious leaders following a wave of detentions targeting Catholic clergy over the Christmas season.
Since Christmas, Nicaraguan police and paramilitaries have detained more than a dozen priests, including an archdiocesan vicar, as the Sandinista regime escalates a campaign of terror against the Catholic Church -- an institution it has struggled to subdue.
Six lay staff members from a now-closed diocesan Cáritas chapter were convicted on money laundering charges in Nicaragua on Christmas Eve as the Sandinista regime stepped up its crackdown on the Catholic Church over the Christmas season.
In the face of Nicaragua's authoritarian regime, "the prophetic voice of the Catholic Church cannot be underestimated," said an opposition leader recently exiled to the U.S., who joined fellow speakers at a Dec. 1 presentation on the church's role in preserving democratic