Nicaragua prohibits parish missions, insists church activities be confined to parish premises
(OSV News) — The Nicaraguan regime has prohibited a Catholic diocese from carrying out pastoral missions by insisting all church activities must be confined to parish premises.
Parishioners in the Diocese of León had planned to go door-to-door on Jan. 24, but were told to limit their activities to church property, according to exiled lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, who tracks Catholic persecution in Nicaragua.
‘Makes the activity a failure’
“The police banned the missions that were scheduled for next weekend and urged everyone to stay in ‘their parishes’ without going out to preach the word, which makes the activity a failure because the spirit of it was to take the word of God door-to-door,” Molina said in an X post.
Nicaragua’s Sandinista regime has cracked down on dissent in Nicaragua since 2018 protests demanded President Daniel Ortega‘s ouster. The Nicaraguan bishops’ conference mediated a dialogue between student protesters and the regime, but withdrew as Ortega became intransigent. Ortega has subsequently persecuted the Nicaraguan Catholic Church and forced at least 305 clergy, churchmen and religious into exile, including four bishops, according to Molina.
Legal status revoked for NGOs
More than 5,000 nongovernmental groups, Catholic charitable and education projects and religious orders have had their legal status revoked.
Stories surfaced on social media in late January of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family abandoning a missionary project after 30 years of service in the community of Totogalpa. The Capuchin sisters’ Our Lady of Guadalupe province, based in neighboring Costa Rica, denied the project was closed due to regime pressure, saying in a Jan. 24 statement signed by provincial superior, Sister Maribelle Umaña Machado, “After a period of congregational discernment, it has been recognized that the objectives that brought us to this land have been fulfilled.”
Many of the religious congregations leaving Nicaragua have departed quietly to protect staff and avoid reprisals for the communities they were previously supporting.
Regime faces increasing scrutiny by U.S.
The latest attacks on the Catholic Church comes as Nicaragua’s anti-U.S. regime faces scrutiny from the Trump administration following the daring raid on Venezuela — an ally of Nicaragua — which removed president Nicolás Maduro from power and brought him and his wife to New York to stand trial on drug charges.
Nicaragua subsequently released dozens of political prisoners following the U.S. intervention as the Trump administration increases pressure on repressive, leftist-regimes in the hemisphere.
The Nicaraguan interior ministry said Jan. 10 that it would release “dozens of persons in the prison system.” The actions followed the U.S. Embassy in Managua saying Jan. 9 on X, “Venezuela took an important step toward peace by releasing a large number of political prisoners. In Nicaragua, more than 60 people remain unjustly detained or disappeared, including pastors, religious workers, the sick, and the elderly. Peace is only possible with freedom!”
Descended into disctatorship
President Donald Trump has not directly mentioned Nicaragua, which has descended into dictatorship under Co-Presidents Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo. A source familiar with Nicaragua’s foreign relations told OSV News that the regime was trying to stay ahead of other leftist-regimes such as Cuba and Venezuela by cooperating with the United States on migration enforcement and drug interdiction, or by releasing prisoners and opening dialogue.
“They know that just opening a discussion buys them time and really they’re looking to buy time,” the source said.
Exiled Auxiliary Bishop Silvio José Baez of Managua spoke of freedom and democracy “coming increasingly closer” in Latin America.
‘Not the time to remain silent’
“In many of our countries we live in moments of uncertainty and painful experiences of arbitrary powers that threaten, repress and imprison,” he said in his Jan. 25 homily at St. Agatha’s Church in Miami. “This is not the time to remain silent or to become discouraged.”
He added, “(It’s) time to speak to illuminate the darkness of the moment, feed the hope of the people and denounce the oppressive structures that have prevailed until now, but that are about to disappear.”
The regime in Nicaragua detained at least 60 people celebrating Maduro’s ouster, according to Blue and White Monitoring, which highlights human rights abuses in the country. Some analysts questioned if the released prisoners would have freedom of movement or simply face house arrest.
‘Political prisoners as bargaining chips’
“They want to deceive the international community,” Molina told OSV News. “What they’re doing is releasing a few political prisoners, but they’re also imprisoning a larger number because the dictatorship is using political prisoners as bargaining chips. It’s part of the game, the negotiation, and their habit of always having political prisoners in jail. So it’s not freedom.”
At least one priest remains in detention, Molina said. Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón, an octogenarian serving as an ad omnia administrator in the Diocese of Estelí — where exiled Bishop Rolando Álvarez is apostolic administrator – remains confined to a diocesan seminary and unable to publicly perform ministry.
Three priestly ordinations prohibited
Father Valle was detained in July 2024, after being told by police that the ordination of three priests scheduled for the next day were prohibited.
Molina said Ortega and Murillo are likely seeking an overhaul of the country’s Catholic hierarchy, with regime-friendly clergy assuming senior leadership.
Some clergy have not been allowed to return to Nicaragua after traveling abroad.
“Murillo is temperamental,” Molina said. “She’s displeased with Pope Leo XIV at the moment because he received the (four exiled) bishops,” Molina added.
David Agren writes for OSV News from Buenos Aires.
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