Religious persecution in Nicaragua continues. The National Police, controlled by the Ortega-Murillo regime , appeared at the parish office of the Nuestra Señora del Rosario Cathedral, in the diocese of  Estelí , in charge of Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón , to order the prohibition of the priestly ordination of deacons Kelin José Martínez Rayo, Wendell Fuentes Chavarría and Ervin Joel Hernández Umanzor , which was to take place on Saturday, July 27 in the diocesan temple, by the laying on of hands of the bishop of Jinotega and president of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN), Monsignor Carlos Herrera.

The police order specified that "any activity of that nature was prohibited," without explaining the reasons. 

The seminary is like a prison for the priest Frutos Valle
On Friday, July 26, hours after the police officers notified that "the priestly ordination" of the three deacons was not authorized, Father Frutos Valle Salmerón, almost 80 years old, was transferred to the National Seminary of Our Lady of Fatima, in Managua. According to the lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina , the priest has "a seminary like a prison: he is under surveillance so that he does not escape."

The priest Valle Salmerón had been appointed seven months ago as administrator ad omnia  of the diocese of Estelí.

"The priest has been under surveillance for several days. There are also three other priests from the diocese of Estelí who are under constant surveillance," said Molina, author of the study "Nicaragua, a persecuted Church." Molina also warned that there are fears of imprisonment of these three priests, whose names were not to be published.

Frutos Valle Salmerón is 79 years old and has been a priest for 50 years. He was appointed administrator ad omnia of the diocese of Estelí on January 11, 2024, due to the forced absence of the bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez , who was exiled to the Vatican on January 13, 2024. With his transfer to Manuagua and the imposition of "seminary for prison", the diocese of Estelí is once again left without an official leader in the territory.

The priestly ordination would have been presided over by Monsignor Carlos Herrera, who, on July 20, 2024, ordained a priest and seven new deacons, in the first priestly and diaconal ordination in Matagalpa since the exile of Monsignor Álvarez.

"With a heart full of hope, joy and spiritual health, I want to inform you that the priestly ordination of this unworthy servant of the Lord was cancelled for reasons that are still unclear, but which are external to our ecclesial life," said Deacon Wendel Fuertes, in a statement he shared after his priestly ordination was suspended.

"I encourage you to continue praying for priestly vocations; we hope that God will soon allow us to serve this diocese more and better as priests," he added. 

They pray to God for the priestly ordination of their sons
Until now, it is unknown when the priestly ordination of the three deacons could take place. Faced with this situation, the parents of families of 15 young deacons who will be ordained priests on August 16 in the metropolitan cathedral of Managua, under the authority of Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes , were very worried that their sons would run into the same obstacle, so they asked God for prayers to avoid it. 

"We have learned, through independent media, of what the police did to the deacons who were going to be ordained in the cathedral of Estelí, by preventing a work of the Lord. As relatives of one of the next priests to be ordained here in Managua, we hope to see this mission, which is of God and not of human beings, carried out, so we hope that these ordinations will be carried out, because the things of God are sacred. We pray to God that we can see the investiture of these young men under the priestly ministry without any inconvenience," commented a relative on condition of anonymity.

Recently, the United Nations Group of Experts on Nicaragua presented a report on religious persecution in the country, in which they denounced that Catholic priests who were imprisoned were tortured and suffered "forced nudity," in addition to the impediments imposed on them to carry out the processions that the Catholic Church customarily holds. 

"The persecution of members of the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations also violated the right of thousands of people to freely and publicly practice their right to freedom of religion, with effects on other rights, such as freedom of conscience, expression and opinion," the report said.