Holy See Delays Nicaragua Bishops’ Ad Limina Visit
Four prelates remain in exile under Ortega; Rome cites a lack of conditions, and no new date is set.
Bishop Carlos Enrique Herrera Gutiérrez, president of the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference and bishop of Jinotega, said the Holy See has postponed the ad limina visit of Nicaragua’s bishops until next year, with no date fixed, because the “appropriate conditions” do not exist for the members of the episcopal conference.
Nicaragua has nine active bishops. Four are in exile: Herrera, expelled in November 2024 by the government of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo; Bishop Silvio Báez, auxiliary of Managua, forced out in 2019 after criticizing the regime; Bishop Isidoro Mora of Siuna; and Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, apostolic administrator of Estelí—the last two expelled in January 2024. The country’s last ad limina visit took place in 2017. Herrera met Pope Leo XIV in person on October 12 at a gathering on Amoris Laetitia.
Exile, fear, and empty sees
An anonymous priest still serving in Nicaragua said the bishops “can’t leave, and the fear is real,” warning that a prelate who travels to Rome may not be allowed to return. “Imagine if all the bishops currently in the country were to leave, and the government suddenly decided not to allow them back in—we would be left without a single bishop. Therefore, it’s a matter of prudence not to go on the ad limina visit,” he said.
Martha Patricia Molina, author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church,” which documents thousands of attacks on the Church by the dictatorship since 2018, said her sources indicate the visit was suspended because relations between the Church and the regime face serious problems. She noted that the dictatorship does not even permit the names of exiled bishops to be mentioned and described the Holy See’s choice as “prudent.”
Separately, Bishop Abelardo Mata, the 80-year-old emeritus bishop of Estelí, was arrested for praying for the persecuted Church in Nicaragua and is confined to his home in Tisma, in the department of Masaya, from which he is apparently not allowed to leave. The regime also bans ordinations of deacons and priests in the dioceses of Jinotega, Siuna, Matagalpa, and Estelí, where no bishop is present.
A Church under pressure
The postponement leaves the Nicaraguan hierarchy unable to fulfill, for now, the ordinary pastoral and canonical visit to the tombs of the Apostles and to the Successor of Peter—an obligation that binds every bishop. With several sees empty of their ordinary, ordinations blocked in key dioceses, and public prayer for the persecuted Church treated as a punishable act, the faithful remain under a sustained campaign of intimidation that has marked the country’s Catholic life since 2018.
The Holy See Press Office had not yet replied to inquiries about the delay.