Pope Francis ‘saddened’ by Nicaraguan bishop Roland Álvarez’s prison term

Pope Francis Sunday mentioned he was “saddened” and frightened after Roman Catholic Bishop Roland Álvarez was sentenced to 26 years in jail for talking out towards the Nicaraguan authorities.

Álvarez, 56, discovered his destiny from a Managua appeals courtroom Friday after refusing to board a aircraft to the US with 222 different opponents of President Daniel Ortega. The the bishop of Matagalpa was additionally stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship.

“The information that arrived from Nicaragua has saddened me no little,” Francis informed worshippers gathered in St. Peter’s Sq. for a weekly blessing. The pope requested the politicians behind the robust sentence to “open their hearts.”

Álvarez was amongst a number of different Catholic leaders arrested in August for being essential of Ortega’s more and more authoritarian regime. The strongman ordered the discharge of Álvarez and lots of of different political prisoners Thursday, and flew a few of them to Washington, D.C.

The bishop, who had been below home arrest, refused to board the aircraft to freedom as a result of he wasn’t allowed to seek the advice of with different church leaders first, a transfer Ortega labeled “absurd.” Álvarez was then sentenced for undermining the federal government, spreading false data, obstruction of capabilities and disobedience, and despatched to a Modelo jail.

The extreme sentence got here as Ortega — a one-time leftist revolutionary who had first been elected president in 1984, however had regularly dialed up his authoritarianism since retaking energy in 2007 — regarded to crack down on the church, which is the final impartial establishment trusted by many Nicaraguans.

Álvarez’s sentence “constitutes probably the most extreme repression towards the Catholic Church in Latin America because the assassination of Guatemalan Bishop Juan José Gerardi in 1998,” mentioned Andrew Chesnut, a professor of non secular research at Virginia Commonwealth College.

Álvarez had been an outspoken dissenter of Ortega since a wave of protests towards his authorities led to crackdowns on opponents in 2018.

“We hope there can be a sequence of electoral reforms, structural modifications to the electoral authority — free, simply and clear elections, worldwide commentary with out circumstances,” Álvarez mentioned a month after the protests broke out. “Successfully the democratization of the nation.”

The president had initially requested the church to mediate the battle, however inside months it got here below hearth by authorities supporters, who fired on a church whereas 155 scholar protestors hid below the pews for some 15 hours, killing a scholar who died on the rectory ground.

Ortega had extra just lately accused Catholic leaders of being a part of a supposed plot to depose him, and had seized a number of radio stations owned by the diocese.

He agreed to launch the lots of of political prisoners, labeled “terrorists” to a US ambassador on the suggestion of Vice President Rosario Murillo, his spouse, the president recounted in a rambling velocity Thursday.

The pope’s Sunday feedback marked the primary time he had publicly talked about the state of affairs since August.

“Since first changing into the ruling social gathering in 1979 the Sandinistas have repressed the Catholic Church like few different regimes in Latin America,” Chesnut mentioned.

“Pope Francis has kept away from criticizing President Ortega for concern of inflaming the state of affairs, however many consider that now’s the time for him to talk out prophetically in protection of probably the most persecuted Church in Latin America.”

“The Catholic Church, I believe, is among the important establishments that the Ortega regime actually, actually fears,” Antonio Garrastazu, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean on the Worldwide Republican Institute in Washington, mentioned earlier than the the sentencing.

“The Catholic Church are actually those that may really change the hearts and minds of the individuals.”

The sentence imposed on Álvarez was “arbitrary and final minute” and included crimes that have been no a part of the bishop’s authentic conviction, in keeping with Vilma Núñez, director of the Nicaragua Heart for Human Rights.

“The non-public well-being and lifetime of the Monsignor is at risk,” Núñez mentioned.

With AP wires