Vatican City, Jun 3, 2018 / 04:38 am
In off-the-cuff comments after the Angelus Sunday, Pope Francis denounced violence against protestors by armed groups in Nicaragua and prayed for the country's victims and their families.
"I join my brother bishops of Nicaragua in expressing sorrow for the serious violence, with dead and wounded, carried out by armed groups to repress social protests," the pope said June 3.
"I pray for the victims and their families. The Church is always for dialogue, but this requires an active commitment to respect freedom and above all life. I pray that all violence should cease and the conditions for the resumption of dialogue [come] as soon as possible."
Pope Francis spoke just one week after a mortar attack was carried out on a Jesuit university in Nicaragua. Resulting in no deaths or injuries, the attack was condemned by the university's rector, Fr. José Alberto Idiáquez, as "cowardly."