NICARAGUA: “Door-to-door” pastoral mission forbidden to the Catholic Church
The ban affected pastoral outreach scheduled for 24 January as part of the so-called Ecclesiological Year
By Willy Fautré
HRWF (26.01.2026) – The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo banned the house-to-house Pastoral Missions that the Catholic Church had planned for January 24 in the dioceses of León and neighboring Chinandega, within the framework of the Ecclesiastical Year.
The measure prevented religious and lay people from going out to preach the Gospel in the neighborhoods. “The permit was denied. ‘Do your things inside’ was the order that the clergy of the diocese had received,” denounced Molina, lawyer and author of a series of reports about the religious persecution in Nicaragua.
The directive was delivered days before a planned wave of pastoral missions. The message was conveyed directly by police agents acting on behalf of the regime. Clergy were told explicitly not to leave their parishes to carry out pastoral activities, effectively neutralizing the missionary dimension of the diocesan program.
No formal decree was published but the verbal order carried enough weight to ensure compliance, reflecting the climate of fear that has taken hold among religious communities.
Bishop Sándigo is one of the less confrontational prelates toward the government. On some occasions, processions were even allowed in university areas
In Latin America, parish missions and house-to-house visits are not marginal activities but a central expression of pastoral care, especially in poorer and rural communities. Preventing priests from carrying pastoral missions outside their church buildings amounts to redefining religion as a purely private act, and reminds the bans imposed in Communist countries.
Over the past several years, the Ortega-Murillo regime has expelled religious orders, confiscated Church property, jailed or exiled clergy, and banned public processions nationwide.
For the faithful of León and Chinandega, the message is clear. The Church may exist, but only within limits imposed by the state. The command to “stay inside” is not merely logistical; it is symbolic of a regime determined to confine religious life to silence and walls.
Two priests still detained
On July 26, 2024, Nicaraguan police arrested Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón, a priest and the administrator of the Diocese of Estelí. Salmerón’s arrest occurred after police informed him that the Diocese’s priestly ordination of three deacons, scheduled for July 27, 2024, was prohibited.
In December 2023, Nicaraguan authorities arrested Ervin López, a priest from the Diocese of León. His arrest came amid a larger government crackdown on the Catholic Church in Nicaragua.
Read more
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Nicaragua: A 50-page report about the persecution of Christians
Photo: Monsignor Socrates René Sándigo Jirón, bishop of the Diocese of León. Photo: Diocese of León.
