The Nicaraguan government announced this Sunday that it had released two Catholic bishops, including Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, a strong critic of President Daniel Ortega, 15 priests and two seminarians, and sent them to Rome under an agreement with the Vatican.

Nicaragua’s presidency said the religious traveled after reaching agreements of “good faith and good will” with the Holy See to improve “understanding” with Catholic Church authorities.

“They have already been received by the Vatican authorities, in accordance with the agreements of good faith and good will, which aim to promote understanding and improve communications between the Holy See and Nicaragua, for peace and well-being,” the added government added in a statement.

The government thanked Pope Francis and the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, together with their work team “profoundly” for the very respectful and discreet coordination that was carried out.

Álvarez, 57 years old and who previously preferred prison to exile, was arrested in August 2022 and sentenced last February to 26 years in prison. The United States and international human rights organizations repeatedly called for his release.

Those released include Bishop Isidoro Mora, 53, and more than a dozen priests arrested in December.

“We are reassured by the release of these religious leaders. “All people have the right to worship, at home and abroad,” wrote U.S. Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols in X.

“We continue to call for the release of all those wrongfully detained and the restoration of the fundamental freedoms of the Nicaraguan people,” the US official added.

Relations between the Church and the government deteriorated after Ortega accused priests of supporting the 2018 anti-government protests, which he viewed as an attempted coup promoted by Washington and which the UN said resulted in more than 300 deaths.

Diplomacy work

The auxiliary bishop of Managua, exiled in the United States, Silvio Báez, said in a message displayed on social networks that the clergy were “welcomed by the Holy See.”

“I would like to invite all of you to thank Pope Francis (…) for the effectiveness of Vatican diplomacy,” Báez said during a Sunday religious service.

Priest Uriel Vallejos, also exiled to the United States, believed that the government “wants to leave Nicaragua without priests.”

“Another plane full of shepherds from the city to exile,” Vallejos wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

Last October, another 12 priests were released and sent to Rome following a government deal with the Vatican. The conditions for the release of the religious are unknown.

In December, Pope Francis said he was following “with great concern” the detention of priests in Nicaragua.

Relationship with the Church

Former Sandinista guerrilla and now opponent of Ortega, Dora María Téllez, celebrated the release of the clerics and believed that government measures against the Church will continue.

“They will continue to dismantle the Church. Anyone who harasses them is imprisoned and then exiled,” said Téllez, who was jailed and left the country in February 2023 with a group of 222 prisoners who were expelled to the United States and stripped of their nationality.

The situation for the Church worsened during the Christmas and New Year holidays with the wave of arrests of priests who were released this Sunday along with Álvarez.

Diplomatic relations between Managua and the Vatican were on the verge of disintegration after the Pope called Ortega’s government a “rude dictatorship” in March 2023.

According to a study by exiled lawyer Martha Molina in the United States, there have been 740 attacks on the Church since 2018 and 176 priests and nuns have been expelled, exiled or banned from entering the country.

Organizations linked to the Church have been closed, including the Jesuit university Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) of Managua. (JO)