“Lord Jesus, good shepherd, grant our Bishop the grace of persevering and continuous prayer, the joy of communion with his priests and religious and the joy of serving his people with a generous spirit.
“Merciful Lord, permit him to proclaim the wonders of your love, announce the only true God and experience him in the charity of all, principally the poorest, the sick, and the penitents. May his heart be attentive to the anguish and the hopes of his flock, may he be faithful to the mission of encouraging hope and to work tirelessly for justice.
"We entrust him to your Divine Mercy, to Our Lady of Mercy, the intercession of Sister Faustina Kowalska, and Pope Saint John Paul II. Amen.
"With this prayer that has accompanied the Episcopal Ministry of Bishop Rolando José Alvarez Lagos, since his arrival in the Diocese of #Matagalpa on April 2, 2011, we continue to pray to the Lord for our Pastor, for the priests, seminarians, and laity who have accompanied him."
Since 2018, under the Ortega dictatorship, there have been more than 190 attacks against the Catholic Church, its bishops, priests, faithful, and houses of worship.
Ortega has repeatedly insulted Catholic bishops and priests, calling them "demons in cassocks," "terrorists" and "coup plotters."
In March of this year, the dictatorship expelled the apostolic nuncio in Nicaragua, Archbishop Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag. The decision was received with "surprise and pain" by the Vatican.
At the beginning of July, the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Saint Teresa of Calcutta, and dedicated to caring for the poorest and sickest, were expelled from the country.
In addition, the regime has forcibly closed Catholic television and radio stations in the country.
In recent weeks, using the police, the Ortega dictatorship has harassed various priests in Nicaragua, especially in the Diocese of Matagalpa and the Diocese of Siuna where Father Oscar Benavidez was arrested for no known reason.
Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Universidad Privada del Norte in Trujillo, Peru. I have been part of the ACI Prensa team for more than 10 years. I have covered Pope Francis' trips to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Peru. I covered the beatification ceremony of today's Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero in San Salvador, El Salvador, in 2015. Special envoy for investigation in Honduras in 2016. Head of the ACI Prensa Office in Mexico since 2018.