Nicaragua Prohibits Priestly and Diaconal Ordinations

The Red government should study the history of Mexico. When the Reds in Mexico tried the same crap, they ended up with the Cristero War!

From Aleteia

By Daniel Esparza

With bishops forced into exile, four dioceses in Nicaragua are now barred from ordaining priests amid escalating pressure on the Church.

The government of Nicaragua has imposed a new restriction on the Catholic Church, prohibiting priestly and diaconal ordinations in four dioceses whose bishops have been forced into exile. The measure affects the Dioceses of Jinotega, Siuna, Matagalpa, and Estelí and marks another escalation in the ongoing confrontation between the regime and the Church.

As read in El Debate and reported by Catholic news agencies, the decision effectively prevents seminarians who have already completed their formation from receiving the sacrament of Holy Orders. The restriction appears designed to weaken dioceses that no longer have their bishops physically present in the country.

Nicaragua’s government, led by President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, has steadily tightened pressure on the Church since nationwide protests erupted in 2018.

In the years that have followed, clergy and religious have been arrested, exiled, or denied entry to the country, while religious processions and public expressions of faith have increasingly been curtailed. Researchers documenting the situation report more than a thousand incidents targeting Catholic institutions and tens of thousands of banned religious events.

Ortega and the Catholic Church

Daniel Ortega’s relationship with the Catholic Church has shifted from uneasy cooperation to open conflict. In the 2000s, Ortega cultivated ties with Church leaders and publicly embraced religious language.

Relations deteriorated after the 2018 protests, when many priests and bishops sheltered demonstrators and called for dialogue. Since then, the government has expelled clergy, closed Catholic institutions, and imposed restrictions on public religious life, creating one of the most severe church–state confrontations in Latin America today.

The current measure specifically targets dioceses whose bishops have been expelled or forced abroad. One example is Carlos Enrique Herrera Gutiérrez, bishop of Jinotega and president of the Nicaraguan bishops’ conference, who was expelled in November 2024 after publicly criticizing a local official aligned with the government.

Another prominent case is Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, bishop of Matagalpa, who became an international symbol of religious persecution in the country. After refusing exile in 2023, he was sentenced to more than two decades in prison before eventually being expelled to the Vatican in early 2024.

According to testimonies from Nicaraguan priests currently living in exile and cited by ACI Prensa, the government has increasingly inserted itself into internal Church life. One priest explained that authorities are exerting pressure over ordinations and closely monitoring clergy activities. In dioceses without a resident bishop, surveillance is reportedly even stricter, with authorities attempting to prevent bishops from other dioceses from traveling there to celebrate ordinations.

The Diocese of Matagalpa appears to be among the most affected. At least 30 priests from that territory have reportedly been expelled from the country, leaving parishes understaffed and pastoral life severely constrained.

Yet amid these pressures, a quieter story continues to unfold inside seminaries. Despite repression, new vocations to the priesthood have not stopped. Sources close to the Church say groups of seminarians have completed their studies and are simply waiting for the opportunity to be ordained.

In the Diocese of Siuna, for instance, several candidates who finished their formation in 2024 and 2025 remain in limbo, unable to receive ordination under current restrictions. Their situation illustrates the broader strategy of the regime: weakening the Church not only by removing its leaders, but also by interrupting the formation of the next generation of priests.