Nicaragua's communist regime has expelled Carlos Herrera, bishop of Jinotega and president of the Episcopal Church of Nicaragua (CEN), local media reported on Thursday.
Bishop Herrera, who reportedly headed the diocese of Ginogueta for more than 19 years, was exiled by communist dictator Daniel Ortega in 2024 as part of the dictator's brutal crackdown. He is the third Catholic bishop.war” Opposition to Catholicism in Nicaragua.
According to Nicaraguan news outlets, Ortega's government expelled Bishop Herrera several days later. criticized Sandinista Mayor Jinotega Leonidas Centeno disrespected the Mass he presided over by playing loud music in the municipality during the service, an action the bishop denounced as “blasphemous.”
vatican news Confirmed The expulsion of the 75-year-old cleric came after the bishop expressed his dissatisfaction with the actions of the Jinotega government on Sunday, November 10, which disrupted worship services that day, the statement said.
“What the mayor and all local governments are doing is blasphemous…We ask God's forgiveness for them and for ourselves,” Bishop Herrera said on Sunday.
The bishop's remarks were reportedly livestreamed on the Diocese of Jinotega's official Facebook page. The diocese's Facebook page, which was used to broadcast Sunday Mass, Eucharist Thursday and other religious observances, was deleted on Wednesday.
Two church sources, under strict conditions of anonymity, said nicaraguan newspaper la prensa The bishop was reportedly kidnapped after a meeting with other CEN bishops in the capital, Managua, and then deported to Guatemala.
“The bishop was exiled from Nicaragua to Guatemala and was attending a meeting with bishops in Managua. Not by the clergy of his diocese as reported,” the source said.
According to Bishop Herrera is currently at the residence of the Friars Minor in Guatemala, speaking to Nicaraguan independent news outlet Mosaico CSI.
“What is happening in the diocese of Jinotega is unfortunate. It is a conspiracy between the prefect Horacio Rocha, the paramilitary and mayor Leonidas Centeno, and the priest Rafael Ríos. “They were chasing us,” said Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who has documented the Ortega regime's persecution of Nicaragua's Catholic Church. said newspaper 100% notification on Thursday.
Communist dictator Daniel Ortega, who identifies as a Catholic, has spearheaded a relentless persecution of Catholics in Nicaragua in recent years as a punishment for the country's Catholic Church. support 2018 wave of democratic and anti-communist protests.
The persecution campaign intensified in 2022 after Ortega's government unjustly imprisoned and then expelled several members of Nicaragua's Catholic Church. prohibit The country hosts numerous Catholic processions and traditional festivals. Ortega also forced the closure of Catholic media outlets across the United States and forcibly seized bank accounts, universities, and other assets of the Catholic Church.
a report A report released in July by the United Nations Group of Nicaraguan Human Rights Experts (GHREN) found that imprisoned Catholic clergy and other members of the church were subjected to physical and psychological torture, as well as cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions during their imprisonment. It details several cases of degrading treatment. . The report also revealed that the Ortega government has banned approximately 8,000 Catholic processions from 2023 to 2024.
Bishop Herrera is the third bishop to be expelled by Ortega's government in 2024, and the first to be forcibly exiled since Ortega began a campaign of persecution against the Nicaraguan Catholic Church in 2018. He is the second bishop.
January, Ortega administration exiled Monsignor Rolando Alvarez, Bishop of Matagalpa. Alvarez, a vocal critic of Nicaragua's communist regime, was jailed in August 2022 after Ortega government officials raided his parish. declared In February 2023, he will be sentenced to 26 years in prison for “treason.'' Like other political dissidents expelled from the Ortega regime, the ruling communists stripped Bishop Álvarez of his Nicaraguan citizenship, apparently rendering him stateless. violation of international law.
In addition to Bishop Álvarez, Monsignor Isidro del Carmen Mora Ortega, Bishop of Siuna, was also expelled on the same day, along with Álvarez, 15 priests, and two seminarians. Bishop Mora is arrested He was murdered by the Ortega government in late December 2023 after attending a mass celebrating the 99th anniversary of the founding of the Diocese of Matagalpa. provided I prayed for Bishop Matagalpa, who was imprisoned at the time.
Silvio Báez, Auxiliary Bishop of Managua, forced After receiving several death threats, Baez fled Nicaragua in exile in 2019 at the request of Pope Francis, fearing for his safety.
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan writer who chronicles life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
