Denver Newsroom, Aug 23, 2022 / 15:36 pm
The priests of the Diocese of Estelí in Nicaragua called on the authorities of the dictatorial regime of Daniel Ortega to convert, to allow them to work in peace, and to release their apostolic administrator and bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, who is being held under house arrest.
“We call on you to convert and to stop hassling us. Let us work in peace! Release the bishop, the priests, and the laity and the Lord will have mercy on you, if you convert from the heart,” the clergy of Estelí wrote in a statement released Aug. 23.
The message was posted on Facebook after a series of attacks by the Ortega dictatorship against the Catholic Church in several cities in the country, especially in Matagalpa, where Álvarez was abducted from the chancery in Matagalpa in the middle of the night and placed under house arrest in Managua after being accused without evidence of promoting violent groups to destabilize the regime.
Along with him, other priests, seminarians, and a layman were abducted from the chancery, where they all had been forcibly confined for days by police and taken to the infamous El Chipote prison in Managua.