As 2024 draws to a close, the persecution of the Catholic Church by Daniel Ortega's regime in Nicaragua has reached new heights. The Nicaraguan government has demanded that all religious sisters still present in the country leave the territory by the end of December, a measure that is part of a long series of attacks against the Church.
According to Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer exiled in the United States, this decision marks a further step in the regime's systematic hostility towards the Church. In her report titled Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?, she documents hundreds of acts of persecution ranging from the confiscation of property to the expulsion of religious personnel, including vandalism and the banning of activities.
The religious sisters, already prohibited from working in non-profit organizations, are now seeing their properties confiscated. Many of them have already fled to other Latin American countries where their congregations are established. For example, the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, were expelled in 2022 under absurd accusations of money laundering and financing terrorism.
The situation of the religious sisters is only one part of a general offensive against the Church. Last November, Bishop Carlos Enrique Herrera Gutiérrez, president of the Nicaraguan Bishops' Conference, was arrested and expelled. Hundreds of priests and religious have suffered the same fate since 2018, forced into exile or prohibited from exercising their ministry.
The Ortega regime, led by a former Marxist guerrilla and his wife Rosario Murillo, uses brutal means to suppress any opposition. Bishops who call for peaceful demonstrations are considered enemies of the state, and the fundamental rights of the faithful are constantly violated.
Faced with this dramatic situation, Pope Francis addressed a pastoral letter to the Catholics of Nicaragua on December 2, during the novena of the Immaculate Conception. Without explicitly naming the regime, he expressed his solidarity with the persecuted faithful, recalling that even in the darkest moments, faith in divine mercy remains an essential anchor. In 2023, the Pope had described the Ortega government as a "crude dictatorship," comparing its practices to those of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.
Despite the repression, the Church continues to stand alongside the Nicaraguan people, calling for justice and peace. The faithful, though under pressure, resist through prayer and acts of charity. The current suffering, though profound, reminds many of the Way of the Cross of Christ, the ultimate source of hope.
This tragedy unfolding in Nicaragua is a new illustration of the persecution the Church is suffering in many regions of the world. The words of the Pope, the prayers of the faithful, and international solidarity are precious instruments to resist this oppression. Now more than ever, the Church calls for peace, justice, and religious freedom for Nicaragua.