A constitutional reform gives absolute power to Ortega and Murillo as Nicaragua’s religious persecution deepens: the State will “monitor” the press and the Church so that they do not respond to “foreign interests”.
Newsroom(02/02/2025 13:35, Gaudium Press) More than 30 women religious have been expelled from three convents in Nicaragua and their whereabouts are uncertain, according to Martha Patricia Molina, a lawyer and researcher on issues relating to the Church in exile, who denounces violent religious persecution by the government of Daniel Ortega against the Catholic Church. Nicaragua religious persecution seems to deepen.
Molina reported that the nuns of the Order of St. Clare were “removed, evicted from their monasteries” on Tuesday night by the dictatorship, adding that, to date, the whereabouts of the nuns, most of whom are Nicaraguan, are unknown, and it is not known “if they have left the country”.
On her X account, Molina – who is in exile in the United States – wrote: “Night of terror for the religious: the Sandinista dictatorship notifies the Poor Clares that they must leave their property. They were only allowed to remove a few belongings, what they could get their hands on. […] The legal personality of the congregation was granted by the National Assembly in February 2004, but on May 19, 2023, it was arbitrarily canceled. Let us pray for the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which will face more persecution in this long night.
P.S. It is not for lack of missions that they have been confiscated. No religious leaves his mission in Nicaragua of his own free will, but because of religious persecution.”
Religious persecution
Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, accuse the Catholic Church of having supported the opposition protests against the government in 2018, which left more than 300 people dead, according to the UN, and which they consider an attempted coup sponsored by Washington.
At the end of last year, a constitutional reform was approved which will come into force in the next few days and gives absolute power to Ortega and Murillo, establishing that the state will “monitor” the press and the Church so that they do not respond to “foreign interests”.
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
