December 8 will be a day of prayer for Nicaragua

By Kielce Gussie

The bishops of Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala called for a day of prayer for the current situation in Nicaragua. This invitation comes within the framework of the 82nd Assembly of the Episcopal Secretariat of Central America.

A call from the bishops

“Let us express our deep solidarity and communion with the people of God of Nicaragua, who are often faced with a difficult reality. » This is how the bishops’ statement entitled “Central American Day of Prayer for the Church of Nicaragua” reads. “We cry with Nicaragua.” She called on every diocese, vicariate, parish and community in Central America to organize a day of prayer for the Church of Nicaragua, “so that no one feels alone”, even in the midst of religious persecution.

Thus, on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, people throughout Central America and the world are invited to offer an “expression of closeness and fraternal appreciation.”

Special tradition on a special day

Like its Central American counterparts, December 8 is celebrated in a very special way in Nicaragua. It is marked by the tradition of “gritería” or praise of admiration for the Virgin Mary. The Catholic Church in Nicaragua also holds the Virgin Mary as its mother and patroness.

It is in this spirit that the bishops of Central America have chosen this feast day as a day of prayer to “join fraternally” to the cry of the Nicaraguan people, “who respectfully hope to find an answer”.

More than 200 religious leaders expelled

This invitation to prayer responded to this turbulent situation which continues in Nicaragua. The Ortega government has expelled more than 200 religious leaders and arrested members of the clergy, including Bishop Rolando Álvarez. Most recently, the president of the country’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Carlos Herrera of Jinotega, was exiled, making him the third Nicaraguan bishop to be expelled from the country in the last year.

The statue of Mary in Rome, before which Pope Francis prays every December 8