Forced disappearance of Nicaraguan bishop denounced as crime against humanity

Researcher Martha Patricia Molina denounced the forced disappearance of Bishop Abelardo Mata in Nicaragua, carried out by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, as a “crime against humanity.”

“The forced disappearance of Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata is a serious matter; this constitutes a crime against humanity committed by agents of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship. He has been missing for 19 days, and the co-dictators have not made any further statements on the matter,” Molina told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, on July 18.

“It’s the dictatorship’s practice to inflict the greatest possible harm on priests,” the researcher warned.

“No one in his circle has any news of him, and concern among the laity and the Catholic Church in general is even greater due to the medical conditions he suffers from, conditions that are almost certainly not being treated properly.”

Mata, bishop emeritus of Estelí, Nicaragua , was detained by police on two occasions in late June after praying for the persecuted Church in Nicaragua during a Mass he celebrated on Sunday, June 28.

His whereabouts are unknown ,…