International News

Nicaraguan Bishops Conduct Day of Prayer, Fasting as Violence Continues

July 18, 2018
People pray in front of police who block the entrance to Divine Mercy Catholic Church July 14, where students from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua sought refuge in Managua. More than 200 students sought refuge in the church after police forced them out of the university, which had been occupied during two months of protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega. (CNS photo/Oswaldo Rivas, Reuters)

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (CNS) – As attacks on Catholic clergy continue and anti-government protesters are besieged by Nicaraguan police and paramilitaries, the bishops said they would pray an exorcism prayer.

The bishops said July 20 would be a day of prayer and fasting “as an act of atonement for the profanation carried out in recent months against God.” On that day, “We will pray the prayer of exorcism to St. Michael Archangel.”

On July 15, the vehicle of Bishop Juan Mata Guevara of Esteli was shot as he traveled to the city of Nindiri, where he had hoped to stop an attack by police and paramilitaries. The bishop escaped unharmed but the vehicle’s tires were shot out and windows broken, said Father Victor Rivas, executive secretary of the Nicaraguan bishops’ conference.

An attack July 14 at the nearby National Autonomous University of Nicaragua campus in Managua left two students dead and injured 15 more. Some fleeing protesters sought shelter in Divine Mercy Church, where the injured were being treated, but armed assailants stopped ambulances from reaching the church.

“In recent days, the repression and violence carried out by the pro-government paramilitaries against the people who protest civically has gotten worse. … Today, like never before, human rights are being violated in Nicaragua,” the bishops’ July 14 statement said.

“Members of the national dialogue” – convened by the bishops’ conference – “defenders of human rights and independent media have been the objects of campaigns of defamation by the government.”

Human rights groups put the death toll in Nicaragua at more than 350 since April 18, when protests erupted over reforms to the Central American country’s social security system.

Churches in Nicaragua have served as centers for treating the wounded and allowing the work of human rights groups. Priests toll church bells to warn local populations of police and paramilitaries arriving.

Covenant House, known as Casa Alianza in Latin America, issued an urgent call for donations, saying staff were forced to sleep in the shelters due to security concerns and its homes had to buy months of supplies such as food and medicines in advance. Casa Alianza works with homeless and trafficked children.

In their statement, the bishops said brokering a deal through dialogue has proved difficult. They said: “We have been witnesses to a lack of political will of the government to dialogue in a sincere way and look for real processes that will lead us to a true democracy.”