Nicaragua has nine bishops, four of whom live in exile. In addition to Herrera, those forced to leave the country are Silvio Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua; Rolando Álvarez, bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of Estelí; and Isidoro Mora, bishop of Siuna.
Before being deported, Álvarez spent 17 months in detention, first under house arrest and then in prison, and was stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship.
Among the many attacks on the Church perpetrated by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship, the then-apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, was expelled from Nicaragua in March 2022. This led to the severance of diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
In March 2023, Pope Francis harshly criticized Ortega, stating that he must be suffering from some personal “imbalance” and comparing his regime to the “crude dictatorships” of the early 20th century.
“I believe that Pope Leo XIV will be a true lion, a defender and champion of the faith of the Nicaraguan people, with the strength of a lion and the humility of a lamb,” Arturo McFields Yescas, Nicaragua’s former ambassador to the Organization of American States, who is in exile for denouncing the dictatorship’s excesses, told ACI Prensa in May.
Although Pope Leo XIV has not yet spoken publicly about Nicaragua, McFields Yescas commented that currently “there is much hope” because despite the dictatorship’s relentless attacks, “the faith remains free and remains strengthened in the midst of persecution.”
One of the regime’s latest attacks has been the confiscation of the iconic St. Joseph School in Jinotepe, an event described by Martha Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer and researcher in exile, as “an outrage against religious freedom.”
Molina is the author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church,” which in its latest edition reports nearly 1,000 attacks by the dictatorship against the Church.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Walter Sánchez Silva is a senior writer for ACI Prensa (https://www.aciprensa.com). With more than 15 years of experience, he has reported from important ecclesial events in Europe, Asia and Latin America during the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. E-mail: walter@aciprensa.com
