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DIRIAMBA, Nicaragua – A pro-government mob rushed, beat and scratched Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes and other Catholic leaders as they tried to enter the Basilica of St. Sebastian. "Murderers!" people shouted. An auxiliary bishop was slashed on the arm with a kind of sharp object.
The ugly scene in the normally sleepy town of Diriamba, an hour's drive south of the capital of Nicaragua, was a dramatic example of the crisis. The church tried to play a mediating role between the Sandinista government of Ortega and the protesters who are increasingly demanding its ousting amid demonstrations and clashes in which about 450 people – the most of them are demonstrating.
Instead, he finds himself increasingly targeted by Ortega and his followers, reviving hostility between the Sandinista base and the church that burned in the 1980s, but seemed to have been defeated these last years. the guerrilla commander had formed a sort of alliance with bishops formerly critical
Brenes, the archbishop of Managua, went to Diriamba in July. 9, one day after talking to priests by phone and hearing gunshots and ambulances. He found doctors and nurses who tended to hurt the protesters and who were now taking refuge inside the basilica, surrounded by pro-government forces
"They were afraid to enter the church. Church to pull out the people who took refuge here. " said the priest, the Reverend Cesar Alberto Castillo Rodriguez.
Despite the clash at the door, the Brenes delegation, which included the Vatican's highest diplomat in Nicaragua, was finally able to evacuate people from the church.
weeks later, despite a massive presence of police, the church is covered with pro-government graffiti.
"My commander remains," reads a scribble, an allusion to Ortega, and others contain vulgar insults. They are signed "JS" for the initials in Spanish language of the Sandinista youth, a pro-government organization that served as shock troops against the protesters.
The Basilica finally returned to service, but like many parishes in Nicaragua, it stopped mass at night when police and pro-Ortega gangs reigned in the streets.
"We realized people were not coming," said Brenes.
The church, essentially the last independent institution Much of Nicaraguans is witnessing the changes induced by Ortega's whiplash, which seems to have resumed its most serious challenge to his power in the decade – more since he resumed his duties.
In April, the president asked the church to arbitrate the peace talks. But the dialogue quickly failed when it became clear that it would not raise the elections scheduled for 2021.
Last week Ortega accused the bishops of being accomplices of coup leaders and allowing the storage of weapons in churches – without providing evidence – and said that they were "disqualified" as mediators.
A few days later, he changed course, saying that he hoped that the church would continue to publicize and insist that the government would not persecute
either to charm or to intimidate, "said Henri Gooren, an anthropologist at Oakland University in Michigan and publisher of the Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions. "I think that he discovered that the charm does not work … so all he can do now is try to intimidate them, try to take away their credibility. "
By verbal attacks, Ortega "tells his disciples" (1965: 00003) This week, Brenes and his bishops met and agreed to continue dialogue, especially pro-government gangs: "You can go to Before and beat the priests and bishops and vandalize the churches without punishment. ", The only option he sees to stop the violence.While the debate on the" democratization "of Nicaragua has not resulted in Ortega's refusal to leave office, the negotiators were able to get help for the arrested protesters, the peaceful withdrawal of some barricades and access by international observers such as the 39, OAS
he sees it, without the dialogue having been further killed.
The 69-year-old cardinal may also have a long-term vision, because he has already experienced that. [19659004InterviewedonthepatioofhismodesthouseManaguaBrenesrecalledthatDecadesagoasayoungpriesthehousedyoungpeoplewhosupportedtheSandinistaFrontofOrtegawhiletheywerepursuedbytheNationalGuardsoftheSomozadictatorship
and in 1979, transferred to a parish of Jinotepe. the fighters took his church. One day, a sniper trapped him in the parsonage with a woman and a girl that he had shot inside. They hid under a sink for three days and survived with biscuits and a bag of pinol, cornstarch and chocolate powder mixed with water or milk
. the mountains of Matagalpa and came and went between the representatives of both sides who refused even to approach.
After Ortega's speech calling the bishop's coup plotters, Brenes said that he looked for the Spanish word, "golpista", in the dictionary, and what? he found was the antithesis of what he's trying to do.
"I read there:" Someone who acts to take power, "said Brenes." Ortega has repeatedly clashed with conservative church authorities when his socialist-oriented Sandinists have ruled in the 1980s – a time when many young leftist priests openly supported former guerrillas, infuriating Pope John Paul II
But Ortega worked to repair church relations after losing elections in the United States. In the 1990s and when he took power in 2006, he frequently made public displays of piety and forged a friendship with the Nicaraguan church. leader, late Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo
When the new wave of protests erupted in April – firstly because of cuts in the social security system – government forces and young Sandinists fought back.
Student protesters sought refuge at the Cathedral of Managua, where the church was collecting donations to support the protesters. When the police and the Sandinista Youth came down, the students retreated inside, leaving only the passage of the clergy safe passage.
Brenes and several bishops made public statements against violence and for dialogue. The episcopal conference then issued a more forceful condemnation of the repression and urged the authorities "to hear the cry of the young Nicaraguans."
The Vatican has been mostly silent about the conflict, differing as usual behind the scenes diplomacy as the local church manages the situation on the ground.
Last week, Pope Francis' ambassador to Nicaragua issued a statement expressing "the pontiff's deep concern for the grave situation."
On the same day as the Diriamba attack, Ortega's supporters ransacked the parish of Santiago Apostol in Jinotepe, throwing benches on the steps of the stoop shouting that the church was harboring terrorists
The most lethal incident took place at the Church of Jesus Christ of Divine Mercy in Managua. At 3 pm on the night of July 13-14, armed government supporters shot at the church while 155 student protesters who had been dislodged from a nearby university were under the benches. A student who was shot in the head on a barricade on the outside died on the floor of the presbytery
Brenes is sure to arrive at the cathedral of the city
The facade of Divine Mercy is always looted. A small chapel behind the main sanctuary suffered the heaviest fire; circles pierced a picture of Jesus Christ and ricocheted on the gold-plated box containing the sacrament.
Last Sunday, 56-year-old parishioner Nelly Harding wiped tears out of the chapel: "If they do not respect the house of God, do not respect the lives of helpless people, can we expect it? "
Curé Erick Alvarado Cole stated that the police had not come to investigate and that the scars of the building would remain as they were. 19659003] "These holes in the walls, the Christ, the side chapel, the windows, will thus remain as a proof of the suffering of the Nicaraguan people," said Alvarado. "If it's repaired, it's like nothing has happened."
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Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield contributed to this Rome report.
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