St. Valentine & Bishop Alvarez

 

                                                                     Nicaraguan Bishop Alvarez

The nation of Nicaragua has become a totalitarian regime, a country of daily fear and persecution of those who do not agree with the ruling family. The Ortegas were key to what was supposed to be the liberation of the country from the Somoza regime but through the years they have become oppressors and guilty of human rights violations. 

Recently 222 political prisoners who were opponents of President Ortega were released on the condition they would be immediately taken to the airport and flown to the United States as exiles. One chose to stay, Bishop Rolando Alvarez, of the Roman Catholic church. Catholic clerics have been outspoken critics of the government and Alvarez stayed in solidarity with the people the church serves. He has been sentence to a 26-year prison term. 

This is Valentine's Day which is associated with romantic love but is actually a Catholic feast day to honour St. Valentine, a third century bishop who ministered to persecuted Christians in the Roman Empire. He was executed and is recognized and is recognized as a martyr.

On this Valentine's Day we can pray for Bishop Alvarez and hope that his incarceration will come to an end. God bless and protect Roman Catholic clerics in Nicaragua who are courageously resisting oppression and persecution.