Nicaraguan priests must submit homilies for police inspection

Priests must present themselves at police stations for weekly questioning and review of their homilies and activities.

Nicaraguan police are now requiring priests to present themselves weekly at police stations for questioning and to submit their weekly homilies and list of activities for review, according to a new report.

Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary, Leon, Nicaragua. Credit: Guillaume Baviere, CC BY-SA 2.0

The crackdown follows a February statement by the Nicaraguan government which raised the prospect that the Ortega regime could stop recognizing new episcopal appointments made by the Vatican.

According to a Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) report issued last week, Catholic priests in several dioceses are now required to go to the nearest police station for interrogation on a weekly basis. Some of these priests have said they are assigned a permanent surveillance official and are warned that they cannot leave their community without authorization.

This last provision is especially affecting dioceses with large numbers of exiled priests, such as Matagalpa, which have relied on priests from other dioceses coming in on a weekly basis to serve parishes with exiled pastors.

In the interrogation, these priests are reportedly forced to present copies of their homilies to the police to verify they do not contain any messages critical of the regime.

Local outlet “La Prensa” reported that in other dioceses, priests are not required to go to the police station, but instead the police go to the parishes and ask them for a summary of the parochial weekly activities.

“They come to the parish and ask for the weekly schedule of activities of the priest and, if possible, the bishop… They must include the Masses, mission activities, meetings with pastoral agents, and request permission if they leave their “jurisdiction,” a priest told La Prensa.

The crackdown comes weeks after Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa gave an interview to EWTN, the first in-depth interview since his exile to Rome in January 2024, in which he stated he would continue in office in exile.

“I was ordained a bishop for Matagalpa, I am the visible head of [the Church in] Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of [the neighboring Diocese of] Estelí and will continue being until God wills it.”

The Nicaraguan regime responded to the interview two days later, calling it an “attack” on Nicaraguan sovereignty by the Vatican’s “websites and platforms.”

The government statement called the Vatican a “depraved and pedophile” institution and said the Church in the country was filled with “liars and Pharisees” who wanted to influence domestic politics.

The regime’s statement further claimed that “nothing authorizes the Vatican State, which must follow the rules of International Law and respect national governments and institutions, to make any kind of appointments in the sovereign territory of our Nicaragua.”

This statement has led to expectations that the government could refuse to recognize future episcopal appointments in the country and will not recognize Álvarez and other exiled bishops as the legitimate bishops of their sees.

The latest episcopal appointment in the country came in 2020, when Bishop Francisco Tigerino was made Bishop of Bluefields, the smallest diocese in Nicaragua.

Before the persecution against the Church intensified in 2022, the only see without a bishop was Estelí, of which Álvarez was named apostolic administrator in 2021.

Two bishops turned 75 years old last year, passing the nominal retirement age: Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes of the capital see of Managua, and the recently-exiled Bishop Carlos Herrera of Jinotega, who is also the president of the bishops’ conference.

Due to the prominence of their roles, both Brenes and Herrera were already expected to serve past retirement age, but it is increasingly unclear when and how the Vatican will be able to identify and appoint potential successors in the foreseeable future.

Seeking to shore up his grip on power, Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega has undertaken a program to reform the country’s constitution, elevating his wife, Rosario Murillo, from vice president to “co-president” and positioning her as a likely, successor.

In this proposed constitutional reform, the country’s judicial system and legislative power will not be independent, granting the president – and co-president – almost unlimited power.

Ortega has persecuted opposition parties, shut down virtually all private universities and the media, and exiled businesspeople, politicians, and activists who would not support his regime.

The Catholic Church largely remains the sole independent national institution, and itself has seen the seizure or closure of many Church-run and affiliated institutions.

But while some local critics have accused Church authorities of being bullied into silence, many priests and bishops have refused to support the dictatorship – with a few exceptions — with many of the more prominent dissenters and critics suffering arrest and exile.

At the same time, religious practice in the country remains strong. Nicaraguan Catholics continue filling the pews every Sunday and seminaries are almost full, even though the government has not allowed almost any priestly ordinations for over a year.

Exiled bishops such as Álvarez remain in touch with their priests in Nicaragua and popular among their people, leading the government to continue to see them as a threat to Ortega.

As a result, many observers now suspect the government is preparing to demand the Vatican grant the regime approval and veto power over new episcopal appointments, in exchange for some lessening of government pressure on local clerics and Church institutions, or else the regime will not recognize the local hierarchy, and may continue to send its members into exile.

A source close to the Nicaraguan bishops’ conference told The Pillar that an increase in persecution last summer was believed to be a pressure campaign by the government, to force exiled bishops to resign their sees in order to be replaced by bishops who were friendly to the government. Similar moves could be attempted again, they warned.

Local Church watchers have compared the Nicaraguan situation to China. Many believe Ortega might like to have his own government-approved Catholic Church if the Vatican does not yield to the pressure.

Unlike China, the largest country by population in the world, with dozens of vacant dioceses, Nicaragua has only nine dioceses, four of which already have their bishops in exile. The dictatorship could easily send the remaining bishops into exile.

Pope Francis has given no indications of yielding to Ortega’s supposed demands for government approval of episcopal appointments. After a period of initial strategic silence, the pope has escalated his rhetoric in 2023, comparing Ortega to Hitler in an interview, writing a pastoral letter to the Church in Nicaragua, and personally appointing the exiled Álvarez as a delegate for the second session of the Synod on Synodality.

In the meantime, any efforts by the Vatican to appoint new leadership for local dioceses represent real risks for the clerics named.

In July 2024 Fr. Frutos Valle Salmerón was placed under house arrest after being appointed diocesan administrator of the Diocese of Estelí in the months following the arrest and imprisonment of Bishop Álvarez.