There are rumours of an expulsion by the Ortega government.
Newsroom (12/03/2022 12:40, Gaudium Press) The unexpected departure from the country of Archbishop Waldemar Sommertag, Apostolic Nuncio in Nicaragua, last Sunday, without ‘return flight’, is already a clear sign of an even greater distancing of the Church with the Nicaraguan government.
Between the nuncio and the Ortega regime “there were no good relations, so possibly the Pope decided that he should resign from this function,” Bishop Carlos Herrera, president of the episcopate, told Channel 10.
It is commented that one of the breaking points in this relationship was when the Nuncio started talking about “political prisoners” in the country, something that obviously does not sit well with the Ortega government.
The Nuncio has also always been very close to Bishop Silvio Báez, the bishop who became a symbol of the defence of human rights in the country and who, by order of the Vatican, went to live in Rome.
Bishop Herrera insists that there was a problem of communication: “There were certain limitations” in communication, the bishop said. “If there is no communication, what is the point of being in that function of diplomat?” he added.
For now, neither the government has spoken of the expulsion, nor has the Church spoken of the non-return.
But, as several sources have already stated, the Nuncio’s unexpected departure without warning anyone from the diplomatic corps, without saying goodbye to the bishops, without announcing his return: everything together forms a picture of expulsion. This would be an unprecedented event in many decades at the global level.
In fact, the Ortega government has already given signs that it does not respect good diplomatic customs by annulling, in December last year, the post of Dean of the diplomatic corps, which by definition corresponded to the Nuncio. It would not be strange to these dictatorial practices that the same government issued a discreet but effective “ukaz”, ordering the Nuncio’s departure.
