Aug 21 (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Sunday called for an “open and sincere” dialogue in Nicaragua, where the state and the Catholic Church are at odds over the arrest of Bishop Rolando Alvarez, a critic of President Daniel Ortega .
After the Angelus prayer, the sovereign pontiff said he was following “with concern and pain” the situation in Nicaragua, without explicitly mentioning the fate of Bishop Alvarez.
The bishop of Matagalpa, in the north of the country, was arrested on Friday and assigned residence in Managua, the capital, for activities deemed “provocative”, Nicaraguan police reported.
“I would like to express my conviction and my hope that, through an open and sincere dialogue, the bases of a respectful and peaceful coexistence can be found,” the pope said.
Five priests, a seminarian and the cameraman for a religious television channel, who had been in the bishopric of Matagalpa for two weeks, surrounded by security forces, were also arrested and imprisoned in Managua, police said. .
Relations between the Catholic Church and the Nicaraguan government have been strained since 2018, the year of protests against President Daniel Ortega. The Church had offered to mediate and demanded justice after the death of some 360 demonstrators during a fierce crackdown. (Report Philip Pullella, with the contribution of Ismael Lopez, French version Sophie Louet)