Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, have banned the ordination of priests and deacons in four dioceses in Nicaragua whose bishops remain in exile.
The measure exacerbates a pastoral crisis already marked by years of religious persecution, although vocations continue.
The four dioceses without a bishop present in the country are Jinotega, Siuna, Matagalpa, and Estelí. Bishop Carlos Herrera of Jinotega, president of the bishops’ conference, was expelled in November 2024 after criticizing a mayor aligned with the regime who had interfered with a Mass Herrera was celebrating by blasting loud music outside.
Months earlier, in July of that year, Herrera had ordained a priest and seven deacons in the neighboring Diocese of Matagalpa, whose bishop, Rolando Álvarez, after spending 18 months in detention, was deported to Rome by the regime in January 2024.
This ordination represented a “liturgical oasis” for the Church, in the words of Martha Patricia Molina, author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church.” “It occurred six months after Bishop Álvarez, who is also apostolic administrator of Estelí, and Bishop Isidoro Mora of Siuna were deported by the dictatorship.”
The dictatorship’s ‘hatred’ of Bishop Álvarez prevents ordinations
ACI Prensa, the
