“Where and how is Bishop Álvarez? We demand your freedom!”, expresses Archbishop Silvio Báez on facebook.
Newsroom (18/03/2023 14:23, Gaudium Press) Aciprensa reports the initiative of the group Catolicos en Línea – Diocese of Matagalpa which, on its Facebook page, called for the “National Crusade of Prayer – 1,000 Hail Marys for Nicaragua and the Church”, as well as for the intentions of the imprisoned bishop Rolando Álvarez.
On that same page were published recent statements by Bp. Silvio Báez, Auxiliary Bishop of Managua in exile, who said he was “very concerned about my brother bishop, Most Rev. Rolando Álvarez. I fear that the dictatorship is more merciless against him. I call on the international community to put pressure on the regime, demanding that he be released immediately. Where is he and how is Bishop Álvarez? We demand freedom from him!”
The post posted on his Facebook page on February 7 also reads: “If you have never witnessed martyrdom or seen up close a Christian being persecuted, just like those we know throughout the history of the Church and the Holy Scriptures, let me say that, just as many of them were condemned for defending their faith, today we have among us a consecrated person who has embraced his cross and walks towards holiness from the cell of pain, abandonment and offering. They stripped him of his garments, but his hands can still bless, exhort, and consecrate.
It is not known exactly where the bishop is, sentenced on February 10 to more than 26 years in prison by the Ortega dictatorship.
Compiled by Raunaq Luis Fernandes
