Auxiliary Bishop Pedro Bismarck Chau pledged to follow Jesus’s example as the “Good Shepherd” when he became the first Nicaraguan-born bishop in the U.S., Sept. 8, in Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
Auxiliary Bishop Silvio José Báez
Exiled Nicaraguan Bishop Asks World’s Bishops ‘Not to Abandon Us’ as Wave of Priest Arrests Ends Year in Dictator-Run Country
Since Christmas, Nicaraguan police and paramilitaries have detained more than a dozen priests, including an archdiocesan vicar, as the Sandinista regime escalates a campaign of terror against the Catholic Church — an institution it has struggled to subdue.
Exiled Bishop Visits Brooklyn Church: ‘My Heart Is With the People of Nicaragua’
An auxiliary bishop who fled his native Nicaragua after facing down death threats for criticizing that country’s totalitarian government was at St. Brigid Church in Bushwick on Jan. 8, helping the largely Latino community there celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.