Ortega exiled 18 other Nicaraguan priests to the Vatican, including Bishop Rolando Alvarez

Bishop Rolando Alvarez of Nicaragua, jailed since August 2022 and who was sentenced to 26 years in prison after refusing to be expelled from the country along with 222 other political prisoners, was deported this Sunday. Destination? Vatican. As part of the growing persecution of the Ortega-Murilla couple against the country’s Catholic Church, along with Álvarez, the regime boarded a plane carrying 17 other priests who had been imprisoned in recent weeks.

As Confidential reported, the Bishop of Matagalpa, along with another bishop, 13 priests and three seminarians, who disappeared between Christmas and New Year, were found aboard a plane that took off from Managua for Rome Was. Rolando Álvarez, under house arrest since August 2022, was captured in February 2023 and transferred to maximum security cells at La Modelo prison, known as El Infiernillo. Since then, the Holy See and entities such as the United Nations have tried unsuccessfully to release the prelate, as the bishop did not accept the conditions imposed for his release, which included leaving the country. Last July, after the failure of previous talks, the Pope called Nicaragua “an indecent dictatorship”, leading to the expulsion of the Holy See ambassador to the country.

Today marks the second deportation to the Vatican, after another 18 priests were sent to Rome in October. Although the terms of the agreement are not known, the truth is that, in the next few hours, another bishop, Monsignor Isidoro Mora, Bishop of Siuna, was arrested after presiding over a sermon calling for the bishop’s release on December 20. Was. Matagalpa.

Since the Nicaraguan regime’s attacks against the Catholic Church began, 203 religious men and women have been expelled or exiled from the country, and the properties of many religious institutions, such as the Society of Jesus, or missionaries, have been nationalized. Of Charity of St. Teresa of Calcutta.

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