Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega, the Bishop of Siuna, Nicaragua was arrested by the police on Wednesday, 20 December making him the second prelate arrested by the dictatorship headed by Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo.
The arrest of Bishop Mora Ortega, 63, came a day after the bishop celebrated a Mass in Matagalpa and asked to pray for his bishop, Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was placed under house arrest in August 2022 and sentenced unjustly sentenced to 26 years in prison in February of this year.
Currently Mons. Álvarez is imprisoned in the prison known as “La Modelo”, where political prisoners of the regime are commonly sent.
The news of the arrest of Mons. Mora Ortega was spread by various independent local media, such as La Prensa and El Confidencial , Mosaico CSI and 100% Noticias.
According to a source cited by Mosaico CSI , the bishop would have been detained by the Police while he was heading to the parish of Santa Cruz, located in the La Cruz municipality of Río Grande. His intention was to impart the Sacrament of Confirmation for 230 faithful.
After his arrest, it is unknown whether he was taken to Matagalpa or Managua, the country’s capital, where the torture prison known as El Chipote is located, where Catholic priests have been imprisoned in the past.
Arturo McFields Yescas, former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), assured on the social network Álvarez, who has been in prison for more than 500 days.”
One day before being arrested, Bishop Mora presided over a Mass for the 99th anniversary of the creation of the Diocese of Matagalpa , in which he highlighted the support and prayers offered by the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN) in favor of Bishop Rolando Álvarez.
“I would like to express the greetings of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua. We are always united by this wonderful Diocese of Matagalpa, praying for Monsignor Rolando and for the journey of each of you, we are united in prayer, communion, faith, love and tenderness,” expressed the Bishop of Siuna in his homily on Tuesday, December 19. , in the Mass celebrated in the Cathedral of San Pedro, in Matagalpa.
Furthermore, he assured that the Diocese of Matagalpa is considered a “quarry of faith,” stating that “there is no parish in which I do not see a Matagalpino, a brother from Río Blanco, Matigués, Esquipulas, San Dionisio, Rancho Grande, Muy Very, even from Cacao.”
Martha Patricia Molina, Nicaraguan researcher and author of the study Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church? , told ACI Prensa this December 21 that, in addition to Mons. Mora, “the seminarians Alester Saenz and Tony Palacio were also kidnapped.”
“Everyone was going to a pastoral activity (Confirmations). There is no information about his whereabouts,” he said.
Bishop Mora Ortega was born in Matagalpa and received priestly ordination on 20 September 2003. Before being appointed by Pope Francis as Bishop of Siuna, on 8 April 2021, he was vicar general of the Diocese of Matagalpa.