Another Nicaraguan bishop has reportedly disappeared after being detained by police, intensifying concerns over the government’s treatment of the Catholic Church.
Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata was apprehended 29 June, one day after celebrating Mass in Estelí and asking the faithful to pray for the persecuted church. Nicaragua’s interior ministry claimed in a 4 July statement the 80-year-old bishop “has returned to his home, where he remains in perfect condition.”
But church observers and exiled lawyer Martha Patricia Molina said no one close to him has seen him. “Until the dictatorship does not present the emeritus bishop Juan Abelardo Mata safe and sound at his home, any statement they issue is a lie,” Molina said in an X post.
She and others also reported that Father Francisco Morales was detained and his whereabouts remain unknown. The US State Department condemned what it called Bishop Mata’s arbitrary detention and renewed criticism of the Ortega-Murillo government for religious persecution.
The case highlights years of pressure on Nicaragua’s Church, including arrests, exile, restrictions on ministry, and blocked ordinations. More than 300 priests, religious, and seminarians, along with four bishops, are now living in exile, according to Molina.
