Nicaragua Continues Anti-Catholic Crackdown
The White House is condemning the ongoing persecution of Catholics by Nicaragua’s dictatorial regime. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby on Wednesday called Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega’s targeting of Catholics “unacceptable,” adding that there has “been a dramatic deterioration of respect for democratic principles and human rights by the Ortega-Murillo regime, including the harassment and imprisonment of … faith leaders, as you rightly said, including from the Catholic Church… .” This follows the Ortega regime invading a Catholic school, preparing to deport Catholic religious sisters, and freezing the bank accounts of Catholic dioceses.
Earlier this year, Ortega sentenced Catholic bishop Rolando Álvarez to nearly 30 years in prison, accusing the prelate of treason and stripping him of his citizenship after he refused to be deported. Six months prior, Álvarez had been arrested when Ortega’s police raided the Matagalpa diocesan headquarters. Although he was reportedly placed under house arrest, several other priests, seminarians, and diocesan employees were sent to El Modelo prison, known for torturing political prisoners.
Ortega has arrested numerous priests, closed Catholic radio stations, reportedly abducted Catholic journalists, and has shuttered Catholic universities and seminaries. The most recent closure was the Immaculate Conception Catholic University in Managua, which was permanently closed last month. Before that, the Universidad Juan Pablo II and Universidad Cristiana Autónoma de Nicaragua were both forced to close. Ortega has also taken over the homes of Catholic religious orders and exiled religious brothers and sisters, including the Daughters of Charity.
Last year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom condemned Nicaragua’s government for its “severe violations of religious freedom,” specifically noting Ortega’s targeting of the Catholic Church. But the U.S. government is waging a similar, though far more subtle, war on American Catholics. Notably, the FBI has been targeting Catholics practically ever since Joe Biden took office.
Catholic father of seven and pro-life speaker Mark Houck was arrested at Pennsylvania home last year, in a raid disturbingly similar to Ortega’s raid of the Matagalpa diocesan headquarters. The key difference here is that the (no longer aptly-named) US Department of Justice charged Houck with a real crime against which he could and did successfully defend himself. Ortega simply labeled the actions of bishop Álvarez their own crime, “treason.”
The FBI’s Richmond field office drafted a memo detailing plans to spy on Catholics who attend the Tridentine Mass, the pre-Vatican II liturgy, labeling those Catholics “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists.” Ortega didn’t waste his time with labels to influence public perception nor even with long-term spying — he simply closed down Catholic institutions and banned public Catholic processions.
The similarities between Nicaragua’s harshly autocratic regime and America’s shadowier political elites are striking, but a key difference remains. Ortega’s administration has no fixation with public image, while the leftists in D.C. are obsessed with it. Ortega doesn’t mince words when addressing what he considers to be the threat posed by the Catholic Church and is therefore labeled anti-democratic. But the anti-Catholics in America can still call themselves champions of democracy so long as they have their jargon-laden labels with which to brand their victims.
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