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July 8, 2023By Joe Jordan, OSV News
NEWARK, N.J. (OSV News) -- Father Bismarck Chau remembers the religious processions of his childhood growing up in Nicaragua. The streets were filled with music and singing and the passion of the people was overflowing, especially during his favorite season of Lent. He would walk with his family and friends during the public Stations of the Cross and admire the statue of Jesus carrying the cross. He recalls being drawn to that statue and his faith inspired by it.
Decades later, Father Chau is now the pastor of Newark's Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart. And this year as he led his flock through the stations around the cathedral, he could not separate Lent from Nicaragua because back in his home country the streets were silent and empty, because President Daniel Ortega's government implemented a ban on public displays of the Catholic faith in February.
The order was carried out by the national police throughout all the dioceses of the country after Ortega branded priests, bishops, cardinals, and Pope Francis himself as "a mafia." He has accused the bishops of being coup plotters and children of the devil, according to an OSV report from when the ban went into place.
In February, Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa was sentenced to 26 years in prison after he refused to be deported to the U.S. with more than 200 other Nicaraguan political prisoners. He was convicted of treason and undermining national security for his position critical of the Ortega government.
On July 3, a group of Brazilian missionaries, the Sisters Poor of Jesus Christ, became the latest religious sisters to leave Nicaragua. The sisters announced they had left their post in Nicaragua and had arrived in El Salvador. A year ago, a group of 18 Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by St. Teresa of Kolkata, was expelled from Nicaragua and took refuge in nearby Costa Rica.
Among others living in exile is Auxiliary Bishop Silvio José Báez of Managua, who fled Nicaragua in 2019 at the request of Pope Francis and now is in Florida.
This is the reality of religious freedom in Nicaragua right now. "There is no such thing," Father Chau told Jersey Jersey Catholic, the online news outlet of the Archdiocese of Newark.
In Nicaragua, the Catholic faith is tightly woven into its history, according to Father Benny Prado, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Montclair, who immigrated to the United States from Nicaragua as a teenager.
"Nicaragua is an overwhelmingly Catholic country, steeped in tradition, going back centuries. In Nicaragua, Catholicism isn't just a religion, it's a way of life, deeply embedded in its rich culture, its schools, its neighborhoods, music, and food," he said.
Catholic clergy in Nicaragua have denounced the government's violent suppression of the people and also have called for democratic reforms.
While the Ortega government has been culpable for hundreds of deaths, Father Chau stated that among its most insidious actions is the repression of religious liberties.
"This is not really a flesh and blood fight. This is a spiritual battle; a fight against spiritual evil," he said.
He calls the Ortega regime a dictatorship, especially in how it seeks to control the narrative.
"It's a facade. They let you celebrate Mass, but you cannot speak about it. You cannot post online (about your faith). They're basically telling the churches what they need to speak about or not, that you shouldn't be talking about (certain things) otherwise you will suffer the consequences," Father Chau said. "If you are a priest who prays for the priests in prison, or if you even mention Bishop Alavarez's name, they are at your door the next day and they will take you away."
Priests and seminarians are specifically targeted under the Ortega regime, with a dozen among the 222 exiled and deported to the U.S. in February. Father Chau recalled a story about one imprisoned priest.
"They are suffering psychological torture," Father Chau said. "An older priest (who was among the 222 deported) told me that he and the others were being escorted back to their cells through the women's ward one day. He informed a guard that he had to use the bathroom and they wouldn't let him. The guard replied, 'You can go here.' So, he did, in front of all the women and among his brother priests."
But despite the humiliating and inhumane conditions, Father Chau has heard stories from those prisoners that testify to the power of faith. Although the priests are not allowed to pray aloud in jail, they still pray silently among themselves and teach the prayers to non-Catholics, who in turn start believing.
"It's beautiful what's happening underneath all of this," he said.
Damaris Rostran's life was in danger when she fled Nicaragua in 2003. Her friends were killed, and she was forced to leave her home due to political persecution. Rostran found refuge in the United States and began working as a community organizer in areas such as immigration, housing, and labor in the state of New Jersey and nationally.
Since 2015, she has helped to organize the Nicaraguan diaspora in the United States and contributed to the approval of the RENACER Act in Congress in 2021, which extended U.S. sanctions against Nicaragua and "establishes measures to monitor, report on, and address corruption and human rights abuses in Nicaragua." (RENACER stands for Reinforcing Nicaragua's Adherence to Conditions for Electoral Reform.)
Rostran, who is Catholic herself, has formed a close relationship with Father Chau to help Nicaraguans locally, including spiritual support by organizing Masses that bring the community together and holding Rosaries for Peace for their home country. In February, she assisted the Center for Victims of Torture in receiving and accommodating the 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners.
Through her work, Rostran has gained insight into the persecution of Catholics in the country and why Ortega is targeting them.
"The priests are working hard to educate the community, not only about the faith but also about their basic rights," she said. "So that is the reason (why they are targeted.) And (Bishop Álvarez) is openly talking about the corruption."
And it's not just the clergy that the government seeks to intimidate.
"There are days where they identify every single person who goes to Mass and the next day these people receive visits from the police department, asking 'what's going on?' and 'why are you going to the Mass?'" she said.
According to Rostran, if a church or a home flies the Vatican flag, they run the strong possibility of being sentenced to jail. "You can practice any religion, but if you are Catholic the police can march into your home," she said.
She attributes the government's antagonistic attitude toward Catholics to the historical fact that the church in Nicaragua has always shielded the people from persecution.
"In 200 years of turmoil and civil war, the church was like a sheriff who would defend our basic rights. Our priests were the leaders of the people. And so, when the Sandinistas (and Ortega) came into power in 2007, they punished the Catholics," she said.
Because of this persecution, which can so quickly become violent or deadly, Father Prado said that his family and friends that remain "live in constant fear and morale is low."
Father Chau added that he feels worry and sadness for his half-brother and half-sister in Nicaragua, whom he barely communicates with to protect them from knowing too much. Ortega's regime censors information and its citizens often learn of news weeks after the rest of the world.
While Rostran and Fathers Chau and Prado help their native country in their own respective ways, they are united in the answer that it won't be world leaders, or even church leaders, who save Nicaragua. It will be the faith of all Catholic Nicaraguans -- from those still in the country to those thousands of miles away -- that overcomes the regime that wishes to destroy it.
"By believing that through prayer, through fasting, and through speaking the truth, we will be free again," Father Chau said.