Cardinal says bishop detained in Nicaragua is "in very good health"
Nicaraguan Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes affirmed that Bishop Rolando Álvarez, under house arrest since August, "is in very good health" and that the Church does not lose "hope" of finding a solution for other religions also detained.
Álvarez "is in very good health, spiritually very well. He says that he sees these things as a moment in his history, a moment of the spirit and he thinks that something personally is going to get him out of everything," Brenes said.
Bishop of the northern department of Matagalpa and a strong critic of the socialist government of Daniel Ortega, Álvarez was transferred on August 19 by the police to Managua and confined to a family residence.
A member of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN), he is being investigated for trying to "destabilise the country, amid the tense relations that exist between the church and the government since the opposition protests of 2018.
His arrest occurred two weeks after the police besieged his curia in Matagalpa, where he remained locked up along with other people, including six religious who are now also prisoners in Managua.
Brenes, who recently travelled to the Vatican, said that he has visited Bishop Álvarez "several times" and that the Vatican continues to seek a way out of the crisis they face with the government.
