Recent polls show that only 37% of Nicaraguans today identify as Catholics, as opposed to 94% in the mid-90s and 50% only a few years ago. While Pentecostal Protestant churches – evangélicos – are growing, many Catholics are not converting, they are simply no longer going to mass. What has caused this rupture?

BACKGROUND

Colonization: The Catholic Church first came to Nicaragua with the Spanish colonizers and, as elsewhere in the world, the hierarchy and much of the clergy facilitated the colonial conquest and the decimation of the Indigenous population. With the notable exceptions of some individual priests like Antonio Valdivieso, the Church was not only complicit but actively participated in the horrors of colonization.

Independence: Post independence, the Church hierarchy and Nicaragua’s wealthy elite ran the country together. In the 20th century, the Catholic hierarchy supported the bloody Somoza dictatorship during the 45 years of their rule, and only at the very end did some in the hierarchy support the people’s liberation.

Revolution: Unlike in Cuba, the Nicaraguan revolution was never secular – in fact, Nicaragua’s Revolution was so influenced by liberation theology that in the 1980s there was a popular saying that, “Between Christianity and revolution there is no contradiction.” There were priests in the government – several Ministers – but they were not the priests of the Church hierarchy, they were working to improve the lives of the poor majority. The Catholic hierarchy was openly opposed to the Sandinista Revolution; Pope John Paul II came to Nicaragua and chastised the priests in government, the Vatican later censored them.

Government of Reconciliation and National Unity

When the Sandinista party came back into power in 2007 the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity sought not only to work with former enemies from the contra war but also included the Church, big business, and trade unions in the planning and management of government programs. The Church was given a place at the governing table. But big business and the Catholic Church effectively ended that model when they conspired to overthrow the elected government in 2018 and used their role in society to try to turn the people against the government.

2018 Coup Attempt

In April 2018, protests began that were ostensibly against proposed reforms to the social security system. It quickly became obvious, however, that the protests were about something else: an attempt to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. Armed opposition groups set up hundreds of roadblocks which paralyzed the country and became epicenters of violence. Journalists’ investigations have shown that the U.S. government was funding the violence through USAID, NED, IRI – all “soft arms” of the CIA.

Although the U.S. was funding the attempted ousting of Nicaragua’s democratically elected Sandinista government, the Catholic Church hierarchy in Nicaragua was instigating it. While the Bishop’s conference was supposedly “mediating” a national dialogue, its own priests were calling for violence. At these “roadblocks of death,” as they came to be known, Sandinista supporters were identified, beaten, raped, tortured and murdered – with priests watching and sometimes participating in the violence.

Later, in the interests of peace and reconciliation, the Nicaraguan government declared a general amnesty and freed everyone who had been charged in conjunction the attempted coup, including known murderers, on the condition that they not reoffend.

Consequences

The hierarchy’s participation in the failed coup attempt in 2018 has had consequences for the Catholic Church:  Many Catholics no longer go to mass because their priests continue to promote violence and seek political ends from the pulpit. These people have not lost their faith – they continue to pray at home and take part in religious celebrations outside the Church – but they no longer attend mass.

RECENT EVENTS

Since 2021, several bishops, priests and seminarians in Nicaragua have been arrested. Some of those arrested, including Bishop Rolando Alvarez, were charged and convicted of treason and money laundering. In the Alvarez case, his numerous private media outlets were closed after having been used to launder money to pay for street violence to feed destabilization attempts in 2018 and after. In 2023, Nicaraguan police investigators found $500,000 in cash in sacks in several church dioceses. These funds were found to have entered the country illegally to finance the violence of 2018 and further attempts at overthrowing the elected Sandinista government, and for personal gain. In 2023 and 2024, Nicaragua negotiated with Pope Francis the release into the custody of the Vatican of all bishops, priests and seminarians who had been arrested.

Arrest of evangelical pastors

In 2023 police investigations also led to the arrest of evangelical pastors for money laundering, including two U.S. citizens. The U.S. founders of an evangelical mission were discovered to have been laundering money through a series of businesses owned by a network of pastors of their non-profit church, in violation of non-profit law.

Is there religious persecution in Nicaragua?

Religious persecution is defined as societal or intuitional attacks on people specifically for their religious beliefs. What we have seen in Nicaragua’s recent events is the investigation and arrest of individuals who have broken the law, regardless of their religious beliefs.

Not only is there no religious persecution in Nicaragua, but there is an atmosphere of thriving religious expression. Patron saint festivals around the country receive funding from the government and openly parade the saints’ images through the streets. In December, the main boulevard in Managua is lined with altars to the Virgin Mary on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, lining a two-mile stretch of road. The altars are funded by Sandinista government institutions, and after the Catholic holiday is over, they are changed to nativity scenes so that evangelical Christians can also enjoy seeing them all through the holiday season.  In Nicaragua, the Church hierarchy may be sequestered inside walls, but the church of the people is in the street joyfully celebrating its faith.