By David Agren
OSV News
Ordinations of priests and deacons have been halted in four Nicaraguan dioceses, aggravating a shortage of priests as the Sandinista regime continues its suffocation of the Catholic Church.
No ordinations have occurred recently in the dioceses of Jinotega, Siuna, Matagalpa, and Estelí, according to researcher Martha Patricia Molina, an exiled lawyer who tracks Church persecution in Nicaragua.
The four dioceses are led by bishops in exile: Bishop Carlos Enrique Herrera of Jinotega, president of the Nicaraguan bishops’ conference; Bishop Isidoro Mora of Siuna; and Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa. Bishop Alvárez is also apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí.
The relentless persecution of the Catholic Church has decimated the priesthood in the dioceses where bishops are absent. Molina estimated barely 30% of the priests in the Diocese of Matagalpa remain in place compared to 2018, when the ruling Sandinistas cracked down on the Catholic Church and society at large after mass demonstrations. She estimated 30% of the remaining priests in Matagalpa are elderly.
“Several of those priests were already retired with illnesses but have to return to service until they die,” Molina told OSV News, “and what happens when these priests die and no one can be ordained?”
At least 304 prelates, priests, nuns, and seminarians have been exiled, forced to flee Nicaragua or denied reentry after traveling abroad, according to Molina.
Molina said Co-Presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, who is Ortega’s wife, are likely seeking a renewal in Catholic leadership, with clergy supportive of the regime populating the hierarchy; but she noted the four exiled prelates have been publicly backed by Pope Leo XIV.
The Sandinista regime has actively thwarted attempts at ordaining priests and deacons. Bishop Herrera was exiled in 2024 after criticizing a local public official for playing loud music outside Sunday Mass, which was part of the regime’s ongoing harassment; but he had previously traveled to Matagalpa to ordain a priest and deacons, according to Molina.
Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón, an octogenarian serving as an ad omnia administrator in the Diocese of Estelí remains confined to a diocesan seminary and unable to publicly perform ministry. Father Valle was detained in July 2024, after being told by police that the ordination of three priests scheduled for the next day were prohibited.
Dioceses in Nicaragua continue to have a strong interest in vocations, according to Molina; but she said sources have told her, “The young men are asking themselves: Why study here if we’re not going to be ordained?”
The regime’s impeding of ordinations deepens church repression in the deeply Catholic country. Processions and Holy Week celebrations must be kept to church property. Priests report police and paramilitaries spying on Mass and tracking their activities. Religious orders have been forced to leave the country, while church charitable projects and Catholic schools and universities have lost their legal status.
Cutline for featured image: Worshippers holding candles pray during a Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua, Oct. 28, 2018, in support of Nicaraguan Auxiliary Bishop Silvio Jose Báez Ortega and to demand the release of demonstrators detained during protests against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government. (OSV News photo/Jorge Cabrera, Reuters)
