Daniel Ortega assaults the Catholic Church, calling it a ‘dictatorship and tyranny’

“Who elects the monks? Who elects cardinals? Who elects the pope? (…) It’s a good dictatorship, an ideal tyranny!” Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega didn’t mince his phrases on Wednesday night when he attacked the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis had insisted, on September 15, on the necessity to “by no means cease the dialogue” with Nicaragua, the place tensions are rising between the State and the Catholic Church. “There’s a dialogue. We spoke with the federal government. It doesn’t imply that we approve of all the pieces the federal government does. Or that we disapprove of all the pieces,” mentioned the Argentine pope.

However President Ortega ignores the pope’s outstretched hand. “I’d say to His Holiness the Pope, very respectfully, to the Catholic authorities – I’m a Catholic – as a Christian, I don’t really feel represented”, he mentioned, referring to the “horrible historical past” of the Church, citing pell-mell the inquisition and the abuse in opposition to indigenous kids in Canada.

“We hear them speak about democracy,” he quipped, recommending that each one clerics — from monks to popes to cardinals — be elected by the devoted.

Learn additionally: Pope ‘involved’ after bishop’s arrest in Nicaragua

In March, Nicaragua expelled the Vatican ambassador. And in August, Monsignor Rolando Alvarez, a critic of the regime, was arrested and “below home arrest,” in response to police who cited “destabilizing and provocative” actions by the bishop.

---

Nicaragua to expel EU ambassador

Nicaraguan International Minister Denis Moncada notified, on Wednesday afternoon, his expulsion to the European Union (EU) ambassador to Managua, Bettina Muscheidt – who took up her submit in Managua in October 2021 -, experiences a diplomatic supply.

Based on the 100% Noticias media, the declaration of the EU consultant on Monday earlier than the Human Rights Council in Geneva asking the Nicaraguan authorities to “restore” democracy angered Managua.