28 de febrero 2020
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The sacristan of the San Felipe Apostol church of Molaguina, in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, Michael Rodriguez, reported having being hit in the face by a pro-Ortega mob who came to the temple to harass and photograph the parishioners.
The young man, who was also sprayed with pepper gas, said that on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 25, when they were ten minutes from beginning the mass, he heard screams from the priest’s secretary at the entrance of the temple. “When I went to look, I saw that a woman was struggling with the secretary, who is an elderly lady, to take away her cellphone,” he said in an interview with the Matagalpa web portal Mosaico CSI.
“The parishioners also joined to help the secretary because a group of people had entered to take pictures of the temple and the people who were waiting for mass,” he explained.
Rodriguez said that two women initially attacked him angry because he pulled one of the them away from the secretary who was cornered, when a man approached and punched him in the eye.
“With the blow I fell to the ground, and at that moment the women sprayed something on my face that started to burn me. It was the parishioners who managed to get them out and pull them away,” he said.
The sacristan assured that this attack and intimidation by mobs was strange because in the church there was no protest taking place against the Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo regime. “Nobody told them anything, nor did anything to them, if they brought that pepper spray it was because they were coming directly to attack,” he insisted.
“Sent by false shepherds who run Nicaragua”
The priest of this church, Monsignor Roger Garcia, condemned the attack and pointed out that Sandinista mobs have besieged the parish for some time, as have been done to other churches in Nicaragua.
“The boldness and aggressiveness with which these people act is incredible, and it is incomprehensible why the government we have authorizes them,” he denounced.
Monsignor Roger Garcia has previously denounced the besiegement of the San Felipe church of Molaguina, in Matagalpa. Photo: Courtesy MosaicoCSI.com
Monsignor Garcia has repeatedly questioned the repression in the country and said that the Ortega-Murillo regime transforms many of its followers “into beasts that obey to kill.”
“They torture and kill for no reason; they pass by like a steamroller taking anyone who is in front. I stiffened just by seeing how far their evilness reaches. For me these are our rulers (the ones that direct the attacks). They (the mobs) do not work independently. They are sent and are sent by the false shepherds who run Nicaragua,” the priest said.
“The false shepherds persecute, devour, eat, kill, assault their sheep, the people of God,” he insisted.
They demand respect for temples
The Dioceses of Matagalpa spoke out against this attack by the pro-Ortega mob and explained that the sacristan was hit in the right eye “by a group of people who unusually came to photograph the temple before mass.”
“We demand respect for our temples that are the house of the Lord and we plead that at the beginning of this lent we offer prayers, sacrifice and fasting for our country. And that any message of peace and love be truly effective,” states the Dioceses in its communique.
On November 17 of last year, residents of Matagalpa were locked up for several hours in the San Felipe church of Molaguina, in the center of the city of Matagalpa, when a mass was held in memory of Eddy Montes, a political prisoner killed in prison.
On that occasion, Ortega mobs threw stones and glass marbles at the parishioners, in front of police officers who kept the main entrance to the Catholic temple cordoned.
In that same attack, a paramilitary pounced on journalist Eduardo Montenegro, who was stripped of a camera valued at more than two thousand dollars.
