Nicaraguan dictatorship confiscates seminary in Matagalpa

Lima Newsroom, Jan 22, 2025 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

The seminary of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, has been confiscated by the country’s dictatorship. The confiscation was first reported by the Nicaraguan newspaper Mosaico CSI. According to the outlet, at the time of the confiscation there were at least 30 students in formation at the seminary.

St. Aloyisius Gonzaga Major Seminary of Philosophy is located in the Diocese of Matagalpa, whose exiled bishop is Rolando Álvarez, who has been living in exile since January 2024 after serving almost one year in prison on the charge of treason.

In a post on X, researcher Martha Patricia Molina denounced that in addition to confiscating the seminary, the government of President Daniel Ortega has “also increased surveillance of priests in the diocese.” Molina accused the dictatorship of aiming “to completely stop priestly formation” and “annihilate and eliminate the Diocese of Matagalpa.” 

In addition to the seminary, the regime also confiscated on Jan. 16 the La Cartuja Pastoral Center of the Diocese of Matagalpa.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Molina, the author of “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church,” explained what she believes could happen with the confiscated seminary.

“I think the same thing will happen as happened with the rest of the properties that the dictatorship has confiscated from the Catholic Church: They will occupy them to convert them into a public building or they will sell the property, or they will convert it into a school. We don’t know what the ultimate goal of this occupation is.”

The truth, she warned, “is that the dictatorship continues to violate and persecute religious freedom in Nicaragua.”

After recalling that the chancery, Álvarez’s residence, has already been confiscated, the researcher in exile warned that in Matagalpa, the bishop is working only with 30% of his clergy,” who are also “under greater surveillance.”

“The priests live in fear of being “abducted and later expelled from the country. I believe that this is part of this whole diabolical plan of the dictatorship, of wanting to ‘atheize’ the country and then ‘satanize it,’” Molina charged.

“They want to uproot the faith of the Catholic people. The Diocese of Matagalpa, the laity, are very Catholic, they very much love the Catholic Church. And so [the regime] intends to completely eliminate the presence of the Church.”

Matagalpa and Estelí

Matagalpa is the diocese of Álvarez, who was arrested, kept under house arrest, and later sentenced to 26 years in prison in a questionable judicial process. He was deported in January 2024 to Rome, where he now lives in exile.

Estelí has ​​not had a bishop since mid-2021. Álvarez was then appointed apostolic administrator, and in his absence Father Frutos Valle was appointed as administrator “ad omnia,” allowing him to carry out all ordinary functions of pastoral governance except those reserved to a bishop. Valle has also been detained by the dictatorship.

Molina told ACI Prensa that Jan. 26 will mark six months since the priest has been confined to a formation house that he cannot leave. The reasons for his detention are not known, “although the dictatorship has no reason other than the fact that he is a Catholic priest in order to repress him.”

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

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/261723/nicaraguan-dictatorship-confiscates-seminary-in-matagalpa