Managua: Facing a climate of government hostility towards the Church, Bishop Rolando Alvarez leads the prayed the rosary for peace in the country.

"Thank you for being with us, gathered around the Blessed Mother, Our Lady." With these opening words Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa led the recitation of the Rosary on Thursday via live streaming from the city's Episcopal Curia.

The bishop also invited the people of God to pray together through social media, "on this eighth day when we are gathered and blocked at our episcopal curia in Matagalpa." He added,

"Thank you for your letters, for your text messages. Let us place our trust in the Blessed Virgin, that she may always intercede with her beloved Son, Jesus Christ.” At the end of the celebration, the Bishop thanked the faithful for their participation via social networks and recalled the August 12th celebrations including the Way of the Cross and the Holy Eucharist as part of the National Marian Congress underway.

Bishop Álvarez sent a tweet, writing that "We are in God's hands. We wish to do His will and everything for His glory. Amen."

In other developments, police blocked another priest in his parish, adding to the tense situation. On Thursday Nicaraguan authorities are reported to have blocked Fr. Aníbal Manzanares from leaving his parish of San José, located in the municipality of Terrabona, northern Matagalpa.

In a message recorded on Wednesday and circulated via social networks on the following day, Fr. Manzanares wrote: "Brothers and sisters, just to inform you that the police this morning notified me that I do not have permission to go out, I cannot go on the street, nor participate in processions, activities outside the parish church, so I believe I am under surveillance."

The police issued another law enforcement measure that the Archdiocese of Managua communicated to priests and faithful regarding the authorities’ banning the Marian procession initially set for 7 a.m. on August 13, “on the occasion of the Marian Congress and the conclusion of the national Our Lady of Fatima pilgrimage." The Archdiocesan statement notes that "in a spirit of peace, given the current circumstances that our country is experiencing," the Archdiocese called on the faithful to meet at 8 a.m. directly at the cathedral, where the icon of Our Lady of Fatima will be taken in procession in the atrium, followed by the recitation of the Rosary and the celebration of Mass presided over by Cardinal Leopold Brenes.

On the eve of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and on the day of the Solemnity on August 15, the communiqué concludes, "we offer all the Masses and the ’Gritería Chiquita’ celebrations" so that "Nicaraguans may grow in faith and hope." The ‘Gritería Chiquita’ is a local Marian feast celebrated on the eve of the Assumption and recalls the invocations raised to the Blessed Mother by the Nicaraguan population on the day of the eruption of the Cerro Nego volcano in 1947.

Given the political crisis in Nicaragua, the Bishops' Conferences in Latin America and the Caribbean have raised their voices to show that the Nicaraguan people are not alone in facing this difficult reality, and expressed their solidarity and closeness.

Speaking on Thursday at the Special Session of the OAS Permanent Council focusing on the situation in Nicaragua, Msgr. Juan Antonio Cruz Serrano, the Holy See's Permanent Observer noted in a statement that, "the Holy See cannot fail to express its concern in this regard, while assuring those who are committed to dialogue as an indispensable instrument of democracy and guarantor of a more humane and fraternal civilization that it always wishes to collaborate with."

He added that "the Holy See appeals to the parties to find ways of understanding, based on respect and mutual trust, seeking above all the common good and peace."

-VN