Bishop expelled from Nicaragua asks for prayers for the people

Bishop Carlos Herrera is president of the Bishops’ Conference of Nicaragua. / Credit: Bishops’ Conference of Nicaragua

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 31, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

Expelled last month by the Nicaraguan government of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, the bishop who serves as president of the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference thanked the Catholic Church in Guatemala for its support and called for prayers for the people of Nicaragua.

Bishop Carlos Enrique Herrera Gutiérrez, OFM, of the Diocese of Jinotega made his appeal at the end of the opening Mass for the 2025 Jubilee, which was celebrated in the Archdiocese of Guatemala’s cathedral.

“I welcome your prayers: Pray not only for me but for the people of Nicaragua, so that one day we can be together and see each other, as brothers, and take our place again, where we were also born. Thank you and I commend myself to your prayers,” Herrera said. 

“I would like, in a very special way, to thank Gonzalo [de Villa y Vásquez], the archbishop of this diocese, for welcoming me, for his prayers, his words of encouragement, since a few days after arriving, crossing over from there, from Nicaragua, he came to visit me, to encourage me,” Herrera said.

“Just like the Franciscan community [who took him in when he arrived], and you too, I know that when something happens concerning our Central American people, we are always attentive, praying,” the Nicaraguan prelate added in his comments.

The bishop of Jinotega also thanked the local clergy for their prayers and for the assistance they give to the “pilgrims [migrants] who pass through here on their way north, to the different institutions or associations who provide a space, a time to help them to keep going, as happened to the Holy Family as well, who had to go through those difficult moments to be able to defend life.”

“And since this is a year of hope, I hope that hope does not disappoint me. Through the faith that the Lord himself gives us, we always hope that the future will be better. Thank you all!” he concluded.

Herrera’s expulsion from Nicaragua

The Ortega-Murillo dictatorship expelled Herrera from Nicaragua on Nov. 13, a few days after he had criticized the town mayor, Leónidas Centeno, an Ortega regime supporter, who interfered with a Sunday Mass by blasting loud music in front of the local cathedral.

The prelate was abducted by the police after participating in a meeting in the capital Managua with the other bishops of the Nicaraguan episcopate.

With the expulsion of Herrera and bishops Silvio Báez, Rolando Álvarez, and Isidoro Mora, only five out of Nicaragua’s nine bishops now remain in the country.

The remaining bishops are Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, archbishop of Managua; Bishop Jorge Solórzano of the Diocese of Granada; Bishop Francisco José Tigerino of the Diocese of Bluefields; Bishop Socrates René Sándigo of the Diocese of León; and Bishop Marcial Humberto Guzmán of the Diocese of Juigalpa.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.