Bishops Rolando Álvarez and Silvio José Báez pointed out this Sunday that the Catholic Church will continue to denounce the injustices that are regularly committed in the country, despite the “threats”, “slander” and “attacks” from “the powerful” who wanted to. see them as “dumb dogs.” So they warned that the institution remains “faithful to God” and without “bowing” to anyone.
Monsignor Álvarez, who is in charge of the dioceses of Matagalpa and Estelí, said during Sunday Mass that the church’s message “is harsh” and that annoys “the powerful” egocentric, who want to replace God and take prerogatives of a supreme being.
“They come to feel owners of our lives,” Bishop Álvarez warned in his homily on the powerful. “They want us to think and act like them, and everything that says about such a culture is for them an injury to the sovereignty of which they have become judges and owners,” he added.
In Nicaragua, the ruling regime has imprisoned 34 people in the electoral process, including candidates for the presidency, businessmen, union leaders, students, peasants, former diplomats, journalists and human rights defenders. In addition, President Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, his wife and vice president, have maintained a campaign against the Catholic Church and refer to the religious as “false prophets” and “priest sons of the devil.”
Although Monsignor Álvarez did not refer directly to Ortega and Murillo, he did say in parable form that “the powerful” pretend to speak in the name of God to the point of “ making their own pseudo-religion”, in which they pretend to be “ the center of the world. “And where” they believe their own lies. ” They “live in their own world, alien to the one in which the people live, which is full of pain, suffering, hunger, unemployment, exile, migration,” said the bishop.
“The church is not there to satisfy anyone’s whims”
The powerful “ would like the Church to be like mute dogs, for the Church not to speak, not to denounce injustices. Furthermore, they would like the church to act as courtiers or for the church to be their courtship, when the Church is not there to satisfy anyone’s whims, it is only there to defend the people for a simple reason, because the Church is the people, “he said. Monsignor Álvarez.
Bishop Báez, for his part, pointed out —from the Santa Agatha temple in Miami— that in times of greatest difficulty “the Church remains faithful to God with unwavering trust, without fear, without bowing to any powerful person in this world, without negotiating the truth, nor worrying about losing privileges in society ”.
Monsignor Báez, who had to leave the country at the request of Pope Francis to protect his physical integrity, is a critic of the Ortega and Murillo regime, who in 2018 dissolved the massive protests against them at bullet point and is currently threatening all of them with jail. dissenting voices.
“The Church’s fidelity to the truth of the Gospel often results in many abandoning her, slandering her and attacking her. The defense of the dignity of the human person and the denunciation of injustice, which are an essential part of its evangelizing work, almost always bring the Church threats and persecution on the part of the powerful on duty ”, denounced Bishop Báez.
In addition, Báez valued, “even suffering, when noting that many move away and attack her, the Church knows neither the bitterness of resentment nor the evil force of revenge, but always acts with meekness and mercy, without ever renouncing the charity and forgiveness without limits ”.
