Bishop Álvarez celebrates public Mass for Nicaragua

 

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 20, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

In his first public Mass, celebrated in Seville province, Spain, Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who has been living in exile in Rome since January, prayed for his “beloved Nicaragua” and offered his pectoral cross to Our Lady of Sorrows.

“For me it is a pleasure, a joy, and above all a blessing to be celebrating among you this holy Eucharist in honor of Our Lady of Sorrows, in the memory of Our Lady of Hope, Our Expecting Lady, of sweet waiting, and I must also say, on the eve of the 100 years of the canonical foundation of my blessed and beloved Diocese of Matagalpa in Nicaragua,” the prelate said in his homily.

The Diocese of Matagalpa was founded on Dec. 19, 1924, during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI.

“We pray for you in this beautiful town of wonderful people and for our beloved Nicaragua,” added the bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of Estelí, as seen in a video by 100% Noticias Nicaragua.

In Our Lady of the Orchards Parish in the town of Puebla de Los Infantes in Seville province, the Nicaraguan bishop recalled in his homily some passages from Pope Francis’ letter earlier this month to the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which is suffering tenacious persecution by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and “co-president,” Rosario Murillo.

“Don’t forget the loving providence of the Lord that accompanies us and is the only central guide, precisely in the most difficult moments when it becomes humanly impossible to understand what God wants from us, we are called not to forget his care and mercy,” the Holy Father said in the text read by Álvarez.

“Be certain that faith and hope perform miracles. Let us turn our gaze to the Immaculate Virgin: She is the shining witness of this trust; you have always experienced her eternal protection in all your needs and you have shown your gratitude with a very beautiful and spiritually rich religiosity,” the pontiff added in the cited text.

Álvarez also read a passage from the 2020 letter Patris Corde, which Pope Francis wrote for the Year of St. Joseph: “In every situation, Joseph declared his own ‘fiat,’ like those of Mary at the Annunciation and Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. … The Gospel tells us that God always manages to save what is important, on the condition that we have the same creative courage as the carpenter of Nazareth, who knew how to transform a problem into an opportunity, always putting his trust in providence first.”

To conclude his homily, the bishop prayed that “Mary, Our Lady of Hope, Our Lady of Sorrows, would keep us expectant for the imminent coming of her son. Amen.”

The pectoral cross for Our Lady of Sorrows

At the end of the Mass, Álvarez offered his pectoral cross, one of the distinctive symbols of the bishops of the Catholic Church, to Our Lady of Sorrows as represented by her image in the church.

“I want to make this gesture of love, leaving the Sorrowful Virgin my pectoral cross, and I would like all my faithful from Matagalpa, from the countryside, and the city to be able to contemplate this, telling them that from La Puebla de los Infantes I am praying for them,” the prelate said.

“And I am making this gesture of love for them, for the Lord, for the Church, for the Most Holy Virgin. I hope that the Brotherhood of Our Lady will keep this pectoral cross in her hands, in a place where you believe it is appropriate, on this date that is memorable for us, very memorable,” he emphasized.

Who is Bishop Rolando Álvarez?

Beginning on Aug. 4, 2022, Álvarez was confined to his residence by Nicaraguan riot police. He was accompanied by several priests, seminarians, and a layman.

Two weeks later, when they had almost run out of food, the police broke into the house and abducted Álvarez, taking him to Managua, the country’s capital.

In the midst of a controversial trial, the dictatorship sentenced him on Feb. 10, 2023, to 26 years and four months in prison, accusing him of being a “traitor to the country.” He was held in La Modelo prison where political prisoners are sent.

One day before being sentenced, Álvarez had refused the chance to board a plane carrying more than 200 political prisoners to be deported to the United States.

The bishop was finally deported to Rome on Jan. 14 through Vatican mediation, along with the bishop of Siuna, Isidoro Mora, other priests, and seminarians.

By decision of Pope Francis, Álvarez was one of the members of the Synod of Synodality held in October in the Vatican.

More detailed information on the life and struggles of the bishop can be found here.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.