Denver Newsroom, Aug 23, 2022 / 14:00 pm
Hundreds of faithful Catholics and the clergy of the Diocese of León, Nicaragua, a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Managua, took part on Sunday in the annual procession of the image of Our Lady of Mercy, the patroness of the diocese.
The procession was held in the midst of a succession of repressive acts against the Catholic Church by the dictatorial regime of Daniel Ortega in several cities in the country, especially in Matagalpa, where Bishop Rolando Álvarez was abducted by police in the middle of the night and is being held under house arrest in Managua.
On Aug. 21 at about 8 a.m. local time, the Marian image was brought out in procession from the Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy after being blessed by the shrine’s rector, Father Mauro Paniagua.
Upon leaving the church, hundreds of the faithful, members of the clergy, and a brass band accompanied the procession with the image held aloft on a litter by several men to the Fortín de Acosasco, an old military fort atop Acosasco Hill, today used as a weather station.