Nicaraguan dictator Ortega bans ordinations in dioceses of 4 exiled bishops

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, have banned the ordination of priests and deacons in four dioceses in Nicaragua whose bishops remain in exile. The measure exacerbates a pastoral crisis already marked by years of religious persecution, although vocations continue. The four dioceses without a bishop present in the country are Jinotega, Siuna, Matagalpa, and Estelí. Bishop Carlos Herrera of Jinotega, president of the bishops’ conference, was expelled in November 2024 after criticizing a mayor aligned with the regime who had interfered with a Mass Herrera was celebrating by blasting loud music outside. Months earlier, in July of that year, Herrera had ordained a priest and seven deacons in the neighboring Diocese of Matagalpa, whose bishop, Rolando Álvarez, after spending 18 months in detention, was deported to Rome by the regime in January 2024. This ordination represented a “liturgical oasis” for the Church, in the words of Martha Patricia Molina, author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church.” “It occurred six months after Álvarez, who is also apostolic administrator of Estelí, and Bishop Isidoro Mora of Siuna were deported by the dictatorship.” The dictatorship’s ‘hatred’ of Álvarez prevents ordinations ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, spoke with three Nicaraguan priests in exile who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals from the regime. “The government is the one affecting the ordinations. And besides the ordinations, there are many other things, like a little more surveillance” of the priests, said one of the clergy. He pointed out that “the police are the ones enforcing all of this” and attributed the ban in Matagalpa to “the dictatorship’s hatred of Bishop Rolando.” The same priest charged that the regime seeks to “supplant the bishops” and that some clergy “don’t put up a fight to avoid making their lives more difficult, with the idea of saving their dioceses, but in the end they are surrendering their mandate to whatever the government says.” The priest noted that Matagalpa is probably the most affected diocese, with at least 32 of its priests outside the country. ‘More extreme surveillance’ where there is no bishop “Especially in dioceses without a bishop, surveillance is even more extreme to prevent a bishop from another diocese from coming” for some liturgical event, the second priest contacted by ACI Prensa stated. According to this priest, there are currently about seven candidates for the priesthood in Siuna who completed their studies in 2025, plus another group that finished in 2024, and both groups are still waiting to be ordained. Despite this situation, the phenomenon “does not seem to have affected new admissions” to the seminary. Why can some dioceses perform ordinations while others cannot? The third priest explained that “León, Granada, Juigalpa, and Bluefields are dioceses that have their diocesan bishop there and maintain a very prudent approach, even though some media outlets have labeled one of [the bishops] as an ally of the regime. That’s not true; they are simply more practical for the good of their pastors and their flock.” He also explained that to carry out an ordination, a letter of authorization from the bishop is required, which “can be easily obtained because it can be sent by email, and they can allow candidates to be ordained in other dioceses.” However, the obstacle is political. “The problem is that the government interprets that permission, those letters, as an intrusion into their sovereignty and sees as a threat a bishop who is away but continues to govern his diocese,” he explained. Problems caused by the lack of ordinations For Molina, the ban on ordinations has an “alarming” impact since, for example, “Matagalpa is currently operating with barely 30% of its active clergy. Seven out of 10 priests have been forced into exile or banishment,” while “Estelí and Jinotega have experienced reductions of up to 50% in their pastoral capacity, leaving entire communities without the regular celebration of the Eucharist.” “The human drama is concentrated in the seminaries. Dozens of young men who have successfully completed their studies in philosophy, theology, and pastoral training find themselves in a legal and spiritual limbo. They possess the aptitude and the calling, but they cannot receive the sacrament [of holy orders],” the researcher told ACI Prensa. “Without replacements for the priests who have been banished, expelled, or who have died, the Catholic Church in Nicaragua faces the real possibility of a gradual closure of parishes,” she warned, adding that “the absence of a priest means” for the faithful “the end of social support and the loss of [the graces of] the sacraments.” ACI Prensa contacted the five dioceses where priestly and diaconal ordinations are permitted to inquire why they are allowed there but not in the other four but has not yet received a response. The dioceses where ordinations are permitted are the Archdiocese of Managua along with the dioceses of León, Juigalpa, Granada, and Bluefields. In December 2025, three deacons were ordained in Juigalpa, and in January of this year, two were ordained in Bluefields. In June 2025, eight deacons were ordained in Managua, and in November they were ordained priests. Six of them were assigned their pastoral missions in February, while in León a deacon was ordained on Feb. 28. ACI Prensa also contacted the dioceses where ordinations are prohibited to inquire about the issue but has not yet received a response. Vocations continue to flourish One point on which the three exiled priests agree is that vocations continue to flourish in Nicaragua and “the Lord continues to raise up courageous young men who listen to him and enter into the process of vocational discernment.” The third priest contacted by ACI Prensa emphasized that “even though the government wants to prevent priestly ordinations, there have been ways in which the Church, the bishops, have managed and sought to make them happen without the government noticing. This demonstrates the Church’s resourcefulness in the face of adversity, how it reinvents itself, how it continues to evangelize.” Mosaico CSI reported in February that “two Nicaraguans were ordained priests in the Diocese of Limón, Costa Rica, in a secretly held ceremony” to avoid reprisals from the Nicaraguan regime. The third priest emphasized that “obstacles are not a problem for the Church, but rather a cross that the Church bravely embraces, as Our Lord taught us, and that propels it on this path to resurrection.” The Church is ‘crucified but not immobilized’ This last priest offered a reflection on the dictatorship’s persecution of the Catholic Church, which has intensified since the anti-regime protests of 2018. “One day, those people who ordered us not to celebrate these ordination rites will also find that glorious cross in the Church and will realize the harm they are doing, but in the meantime, the Church has continued working,” he emphasized. “The Church in Nicaragua is crucified, but it’s not immobilized; that is to say, the cross continues to bear even more fruit because the Church is not complacent, it’s not static. It’s on the move,” he said. This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.