The Nicaraguan regime attacked the Catholic Church and accused it of being an undemocratic institution

Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega, attacked on Tuesday against the Catholic Church whom he described as “mafioso” and accused of being undemocratic for not having allowed its faithful to elect the pope, the cardinals, the bishops and the priests by direct suffrage.

During an official act in which he paid homage to the leader of the Nicaraguan resistance, Augusto C. Sandino (1895-1934), Ortega asserted that Jesus Christ was resurrected in the cities and “not by the example that priests, bishops, cardinals and popes can give, who are a mafia”.

“Look at the crimes they have committed. How many crimes have they committed and crimes continue to come out every day and they are judged! Crimes they commit to have absurd regulations,” the Sandinista dictator expressed in his speech pronounced in Managua.

The leader of the Managua regime has attacked the Church, after Pope Francis criticized the conviction of the Nicaraguan bishop, Monsignor Rolando Alvarez

The former guerrilla accused the Leaders of the Catholic Church To commit “financial crimesand assured that “there they have a lawsuit right now in the Vatican, for the way they have embezzled millions, because they have always manipulated millions”.

Besides, Ortega added that he respects “neither kings nor popes” or Nicaraguan bishops..

“What respect can I have for the bishops I met in Nicaragua, if they were Somocists? I was a child when the funeral of (Anastasio) Somoza (García, in 1956) took place and the bishops buried Somoza as prince of the Church, that is, as if he were cardinal of the ‘Catholic Church,’ he reproached.

He then wonders about the mode of election of the Pope: “Who chooses the Pope? How many votes does the pope get among the Christian people??”.

“If we are going to talk about democracy (…), the people must first elect the priests of the people, then the bishops, the cardinalsand there would have to be a vote of the Catholic people everywhere for the pope to also be elected by direct suffrage of the people,” he said.

“Let the people decide and not the mafia which is organized in the Vatican!”, He underlined.

argued that Jesus Christ was his inspiration to be a revolutionary and praised that the son of God “did not dress like bishops, much less like cardinals or the pope, nor did he live in mansions like cardinals and the pope”.

“They say I’m a communist, and I’ve said it on other occasions when they asked me: I am a revolutionary thanks to Christ. Through Christ I became a revolutionary, then as a revolutionary I met Marx, Engels“, he said.

He insisted that “Christ is the one I always carry in my heart” and that socialism “is Christianity and that is what Nicaraguans and the Sandinista National Liberation Front stand for.”

On February 12, the dad francisco regretted the prison sentence of the bishop critical of the Nicaraguan regime, Monsignor Rolando Alvarezand encouraged political leaders to “sincerely seek” peace in that country.

“The news that comes from Nicaragua hurt me a little, and I cannot help remembering with concern the Bishop of Matagalpa, Msgr. Rolando Alvarez, whom I love very much, sentenced to 26 years in prison and also people who have been deported to the United States,” the pontiff said after the Sunday Angelus that day.

Bishop Álvarez, very critical of the Ortega regime, was sentenced on February 10 to 26 years and 4 months in prison after being found guilty of crimes considered “treason“, in the middle of the crisis that the country is going through, and after having refused to go into exile in the United States.

Last week, the Nicaraguan dictatorship stripped of his nationality e disabled for life hold public office 94 opponentsamong them the writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli, and also announced that they would confiscate their assets.

Nicaragua has toughened its laws to punish hundreds of opponents in a crackdown that followed a political and social crisis with street protests that erupted in 2018 against Ortegain power since 2007 and successively re-elected in contested elections.

(With information from EFE and AFP)

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