Radio Maria was one of the few remaining media outlets run by the Catholic Church. On Tuesday, the left-wing Nicaraguan government of Daniel Ortega declared the radio station was “non-compliant” and had to be shut down.

It had previously been run by Rolando Alvarez, the bishop of Matagalpa, who strongly criticized the government’s actions when mass protests occurred in 2018. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to 26 years in prison last year. Finally he was released on the condition that he could never return to the country. He has been living in the Vatican since. 

Formal ties between Nicaragua’s government and the Vatican were severed after Pope Francis referred to Ortega’s government as a dictatorship.

The government decree claimed that Radio Maria did not report financial statements for the periods 2019-2023 and that information about the radio’s board of directors has expired since September 2021. Radio Maria reported that its bank accounts had been blocked in April and that they were under constant surveillance. 

The authoritarian Ortega regime has imprisoned and exiled several priests. Bank accounts of clergy and Catholic organisations have been frozen, and congregations expelled from Nicaragua.

Source: https://premierchristian.news/