Preparations for popular, often daylong Lent and Holy Week processions are underway across Latin America 鈥 but not in Nicaragua.
They鈥檝e been largely banned for a second year, one of many concerns for the faithful in a country that human rights advocates, exiled priests and the U.S. government say is pursuing one of the world鈥檚 most flagrant .
The Associated Press spoke with several priests who are in exile in different countries, some after being in Nicaragua. All requested their names, current locations and circumstances of departure from the Central American country be withheld for fear of repercussions against their families there.
More than 200 religious figures are in exile, making it difficult to hold Mass or hear confessions in Nicaragua, especially in small villages.
Many pastors still in Nicaragua are under near-constant surveillance, obliged to inform the police if they want to visit someone who鈥檚 ill and to submit drafts of their sermons for approval, according to those in exile and human rights activists.
With their bank accounts often frozen or stolen, some face shortages of food and medicine. One Catholic priest said his fellow clergy are trying to serve their flock while feeling constrained by constant threat.
U.S. denounces Nicaragua鈥檚 crackdown on religion
The U.S. government has condemned the Nicaraguan government 鈥 led by co-presidents Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo 鈥 for the crackdown that seems to have intensified in recent years.
On his to the region, Secretary of State Marco Rubio singled out the Nicaraguan government鈥檚 effort 鈥渢o eliminate the Catholic Church and the religious community, and anyone who tries to take power from that regime is punished.鈥
In its annual report published in March, the U.S. government鈥檚 Commission on International Religious Freedom denounced conditions in Nicaragua as 鈥渁bysmal.鈥 More than 80% of the population is Christian, about evenly divided between Catholics and evangelicals.
鈥淩eligious freedom is kind of the canary in the coal mine for the jeopardy of all human rights,鈥 said the commission鈥檚 chair, Stephen Schneck.
The commission found that over the last year, the Nicaraguan government harassed and deported Catholic clergy, used 鈥渋ntimidation and manipulation鈥 to force leaders of the Indigenous into exile, arrested members of the evangelical Mountain Gateway ministry and allowed attacks on sanctuaries, including arson that destroyed a 400-year-old crucifix in the capital, Managua.
The commission denounced the 鈥渁rbitrary鈥 cancellation of legal status of most faith-based organizations, which often leads to property seizures. All nuns were ordered to leave the country.
鈥淭hese are the nuns that really care for the poorest of the poor,鈥 said Maureen Ferguson, one of the U.S. commissioners. 鈥淲hat happens to them when these religious institutions, people motivated by faith, are exiled?鈥
Government tries to 鈥榗o-opt鈥 faith, critics say
To prevent last year鈥檚 Easter-time processions, thousands of police were deployed, according to the report. Only clergy 鈥渁ligned鈥 with the government are allowed outdoor worship.
Local governments often create parallel festivities to give the impression that popular piety is still free, advocacy groups like British-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide say.
That鈥檚 part of the strategy to try to co-opt the clergy and the faithful, said F茅lix Maradiaga, a Nicaraguan opposition leader and practicing Catholic who was jailed, then in 2023.
The Sandinista government 鈥渉as a long history of trying to create a parallel church, of wanting to take possession of the symbols of faith,鈥 said Maradiaga, who wasn鈥檛 allowed to pray publicly or to have a Bible while imprisoned. 鈥淭he model that Sandinistas want to implement is very similar to that of China. 鈥 They will not stop their pressure on the Catholic Church until they obtain a bishops鈥 conference in some way aligned with the dictatorship鈥檚 ideology. They will not succeed.鈥
Tensions between Nicaragua and faith leaders
Like several Latin American governments tracing their roots back to socialist revolutions, Nicaragua鈥檚 Sandinista 春色直播 Liberation Front has had an uneven relationship with faith leaders for decades.
The Catholic Church drew the when priests and nuns provided shelter and first aid to those injured when the Ortega government violently repressed civic protests in 2018.
The government has blamed 鈥渢errorist鈥 clergy for supporting unrest. Clergy and lay observers say the church has been an increasingly rare voice opposing state violence.
A college professor when the protests started, Maradiaga said students called him saying 鈥淭hey鈥檙e killing us鈥 鈥 and clergy opened their churches鈥 doors.
鈥淲hat the church did was put itself on the side of those who were being persecuted,鈥 Maradiaga recalled.
Several priests in exile said they witnessed youth being shot during the protests and tended to them, seeing it as an essential part of their ministry to help those hurting.
New forms of repression, but lingering hope
Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who fled to the United States, has recorded nearly 1,000 instances of church persecution in Nicaragua from 2018 through 2024. Among those in the past year are arrests and deportations of clergy and the prohibition of a public Via Crucis procession 鈥 the Lent devotion commemorating Jesus鈥 path to the cross.
鈥淭he repression in the past few months has a new face. The people who are under attack now no longer speak out and denounce the abuses, because if they do that, the repression only grows,鈥 she said.
Out of eight bishops and one cardinal in Nicaragua鈥檚 Catholic conference, four are in exile 鈥 along with more than 150 clergy and seminarians as well as nearly 100 nuns and religious sisters who were exiled, fled for their safety or haven鈥檛 been allowed back to Nicaragua, per Molina鈥檚 count.
According to the Vatican, Nicaragua has exiled five groups of priests since 2022, and Rome 鈥 including Bishop Rolando 脕lvarez, who was jailed for more than a year before being released and sent overseas in early 2024 after negotiations with the Holy See.
For the December solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, to whom Nicaraguans are particularly devout, wrote a letter exhorting them not to doubt God鈥檚 鈥渃are and mercy.鈥
The faithful continue to attend Mass 鈥 although some have also taken to gathering in secret to avoid suspected government spies who record those in the pews, Molina and some clergy said.
The fear is palpable, and personal. Molina鈥檚 father died recently in the United States, so she asked a few priests in Nicaragua if they would be willing to say a Mass over his ashes.
None was, fearing repercussions for their congregations. She hopes she might one day be able to return to grant her father burial in their homeland.
Several of the clergy in exile said the ability to believe in a different future for their country is one thing they haven鈥檛 been forced to leave behind.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP鈥檚 with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
