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The charred image of the Blood of Christ in the Metropolitan Cathedral after a fire on July 31, 2020. This attack struck Catholics and the Church, who continue to be persecuted by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. Óscar Navarrete/La Prensa.

Nicaragua is among the 18 countries in the world with the worst religious persecution against Christians

A new report by the Pontifical Foundation Aid to the Church in Need continues to list Nicaragua as the only country in the Americas experiencing religious persecution.

The Pontifical Foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) published a report titled Persecuted and Forgotten? on Christians oppressed for their faith from 2022 to 2024, which places Nicaragua among the 18 countries worldwide suffering severe religious persecution.

The list of 18 countries facing this same issue includes 11 from Asia, among them China and Iran, strong allies of Daniel Ortega’s regime in Nicaragua. The others are Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Vietnam, India, and North Korea.

Six countries are in Africa: Egypt, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mozambique, Sudan, and Eritrea.

Nicaragua is the only country in the Americas affected by severe religious persecution, which has led to the imprisonment of a bishop and has expelled more than 140 Catholic priests for criticizing Ortega’s regime. The Ortega dictatorship also imprisoned 11 evangelical pastors from the American congregation Puerta de la Montaña. Currently, all of them are in exile, having been banished and stripped of their nationality.

ACN examines the challenges faced by Christians in these 18 countries, where the faithful suffer due to state authoritarianism or extremist attacks.

The 2022-2024 report indicates that Christians worldwide face an increased risk of harassment, arrest, and violence: churches are burned, Christian women are abducted and assaulted, and believers are killed for their faith.

The report also notes that even before the period it examines, evidence already showed that persecution and oppression were worsening—a trend consistent with the situation in Nicaragua, where priests and bishops began facing aggression six years ago.

Persecuted and Forgotten? 2022-24 found that in over 60 percent of the surveyed countries, human rights violations against Christians had increased since the last report.

“The increase in religiously motivated harassment against Christians is greater than it has ever been, reflecting findings from other organizations, such as the Pew Research Center, which found that Christians face harassment (ranging from verbal abuse to murder) in 160 countries,” the virtual document states.

The Case of Bishop Álvarez

As always, this report highlights the case of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, who was sentenced—without a trial—to 26 years in prison and stripped of his citizenship for his criticisms of the government. In January this year Alvarez and other imprisoned priests were expelled from the country.

Also read: The dictatorship has expelled more than 23% of the clergy

It also notes that the government revoked the legal status of multiple Catholic institutions and organizations, including the Universidad Juan Pablo II, Cáritas Nicaragua, Inmaculada Universidad Católica Concepción, and the Santa Luisa de Marillac Technical Institute. Additionally, it mentions the confiscation of all assets of the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), which is run by the Jesuits in Managua.

Subsequently, six Jesuit priests were evicted from their private residence in Managua, despite presenting documentation proving that the house did not belong to the university.

Lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina has documented most of the attacks and aggressions against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua since 2018. In her report Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church, Molina recorded a total of 870 aggressions against the Catholic Church up to August of this year, with 92 of these occurring in the first seven months of 2024.

A total of 136 priests, 91 nuns, three bishops, three deacons, and one apostolic nuncio—Monsignor Waldemar Sommertag—have had to leave the country. Ninety religious individuals have been expelled, 46 have been exiled, 44 have been denied entry into the country, and 65 have gone into exile.

The report also details that between April 18 and July 2024, the regime prohibited at least 9,688 processions of the Catholic Church.

“Help to the Church in Need”

Aid to the Church in Need is a Pontifical Foundation with 23 national offices that provides assistance to Catholic communities in around 140 countries. The General Secretariat and the headquarters of the Foundation’s projects are located in Königstein, Germany.

It is also a Catholic charity that has supported the Catholic Church in Nicaragua. In January 2024, ACN and the Pontifical Mission Societies called on Christians to pray for peace in Nicaragua. This initiative was a response to Pope Francis’s call for dialogue and peace in the country.

ACN focuses on supporting local churches, especially in countries where the Church is oppressed, persecuted, or has material needs.

ACN’s case studies include information on attacks against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua. From April 2018 to October 2022, 396 attacks against the Catholic Church were recorded in Nicaragua.

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