Today, the Nicaraguan press and lawyer Martha Patricia Molina reported the abduction of one more priest, Father Marcos Diaz Prado, vicar of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Puerto de Corinto in the Diocese of León.
In addition to these four new cases, Father Pablo Villafranca, pastor of Our Lord of Veracruz in Nindirí (Masaya), also in the Archdiocese of Managua, was abducted by police on Dec. 26. To date, there is no information on his whereabouts.
In mid-December, Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega of the Diocese of Siuna was abducted and imprisoned. Two seminarians were also taken by the authorities along with Mora without further information being available about them. In addition, Monsignor Óscar Escoto, vicar general of the Diocese of Matagalpa, was arrested and held in custody for a few hours.
Another priest, Father Jader Guido, was arrested on Dec. 24 and later released.
The persecution of the Catholic Church by the regime of Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, has intensified in recent months. The most emblematic case is that of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of the Diocese of Matagalpa, who was abducted and held under house arrest in August 2022 until in February of this year when he was finally sentenced to more than 26 years in prison, accused of being “a traitor to the homeland.”