Ortega blocks bank accounts of the Catholic Church to force the closure of temples

The measure comes when this week police officers have arrested three Catholic priests, one of them accused of treason.

“Not even Fidel Castro dared to do so much”, warns the Catholic researcher Leonardo Fernández Otao after learning about the latest offensive by Daniel Ortega against the Nicaraguan Church. As the newspapers have advanced The Press and 100% Newsand confirmed several affected priests, the sandinista regimehas blocked bank accounts of the Catholic Church in the last hours. The measurement happens when in this week Police officers have arrested three Catholic priestsone of them under the accusation of treason.

With the intensification of the economic suffocation, the dictatorship would seek the closure of some temples and the closure of seminaries. Among the dioceses affected are those of Managua and Matagalpawhose monsignor, the rebel bishop Rolando lvarez, remains in a punishment cell since in February he refused to get on the plane that transferred 222 exiles to the United States.

“War against the Catholic Church raged. More than 520 attacks and counting,” denounced the diplomat Arthur McFieldsex-nica ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS).

After having forcibly crushed the opposition, dissent and a large part of civil society, forced into exile, exile or jail, Ortega and his wife, co-president Rosario Murillo, have focused their attacks on the Catholic Church, that maintains its presence throughout the country. already in the past Easter A good part of the processions were prohibited and those who dared to go out into the streets were persecuted.

“The Sandinista dictatorship is economically suffocating the Church, something that it has already been doing in other ways, for example with food aid from critas, held for a long time at customs until it was ruined. By not having access to bank accounts, the churches will not have how to pay the financial commitments that all parishes generate, such as electricity, water, telephone and staff payment. In relation to the houses of formation, it would be difficult to pay for food and teachers. This will force the closure, “he details for EL MUNDO attorney Martha Patricia Molina, specialist in religious matters.

“This is an unprecedented reality, a kind of Castro 2.0. The same script as Cuba in the last century. Without resources, the Church cannot function. Because of all that the Nicaraguan Church has suffered, it does not have the resources of other churches, it is on a par with the Cuban, only that until now the schools have not intervened,” Fernndez Otao warns for this newspaper.

The revolutionary offensive of the last hours led to the arbitrary arrest of the priest Jaime Montesinos, parish priest of the John Paul II Church of Sbaco. The pro-government hosts criminalized the father by assuring that he was driving a vehicle drunk, inside which was a young woman. Instead, they accused him of treason.

The priests Pastor Eugenio Rodríguez and Leonardo Guevara, pastors of the Divine Providence of Jalapa and the Estel Cathedral, are under house arrest. In jail, in addition to Bishop Álvarez, the priests Leonardo Urbina and Manuel García remain..

“On the one hand, Ortega wants to maintain an open letter of negotiation, which is why he has also continued to imprison citizens. But since they are not as visible as the group of 222 exiled to Washington, then he needs the accounts of the dioceses,” he explained. Molina to THE WORLD.

“And on the other, Sandinismo sees the Church as its worst and only internal enemy, because they have already made sure to completely annihilate all democratic scenarios and they have almost the entire country under control. Except for the Church,” the statement said. lawyer.