Speaking during a military graduation, Nicaragua’s dictator, Daniel Ortega, once again attacked the Catholic Church and confessed that he never had respect for bishops.
Responsible for the persecution of priests, bishops, and nuns in the country, Ortega criticized the resistance of members of the Church to his regime and called himself a Christian.
“I never had respect for the bishops; I couldn’t believe the bishops, some priests, and in that approach, there were exceptions of priests who had a Christian practice like Gaspar García Laviana, who without being Nicaraguan had more commitment to the people,” Ortega said.
Father Gaspar García Laviana was a Spanish guerrilla who participated in the Sandinista revolution in the 1970s.
Laviana was a significant influence on Liberation Theology.
Ortega’s speech comes about a week after the bishop of Matagalpa, Bishop Rolando Álvarez, was placed under house arrest after he was arrested for “spreading false news” and “conspiring to undermine national integration.”
Bishop Rolando Álvarez is one of the leading opponents of the regime imposed by Ortega.
In his account of the military, Ortega said he was raised in a Christian family and attended Catholic school as a child.
“I learned over time that at the end of the day, behind a cassock is a human being. The cassock does not make anyone a saint; the habit does not make the monk; it is a principle,” he said.
Speaking about the 2018 demonstrations that called for his resignation, Ortega accused priests of calling for bloodshed by deciding to fight the dictatorship.