Nicaragua’s Bishops Denounce Death Threats

HAVANA TIMES – The Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua issued an urgent statement Tuesday denouncing a campaign of discrediting and death threats that some of the Catholic bishops and priests are suffering, especially the Auxiliary Bishop of Managua, Silvio Baez, one of the five bishops mediating the National Dialogue currently underway and scheduled to resume on Wedensday, reported La Prensa and 100% Noticias.

“We are in the urgent need to inform our people about the discrediting and death threats that bishops and priests are being subjected to, particularly our brother Monsignor Silvio Jose Baez Ortega, auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua. The government attacks have come through different means: orchestrated by official journalists and media and anonymous accounts on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, “the Bishops denounced.

 “Despite these threats, we remind the aggressors that we are a collegiate body and that if a bishop is attacked, the Church is attacked,” say the religious leaders.

The following is the statement issued by the Episcopal Conference: