MEXICO CITY (AP) 鈥 Roman Catholics in Nicaragua had to hold traditional 鈥淪tations of the Cross鈥 and other Holy Week processions on church grounds or inside churches Friday amid a ban on public demonstrations.
Relations between autocratic President Daniel Ortega and the church have frayed to near non-existence since Nicaragua's government proposed severing relations and sentenced a bishop to 26 years in prison.
Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes told The Associated Press that celebrations were held throughout the country 鈥渘ear the churches.鈥
鈥淚n absolutely every parish there were celebrations,鈥 Brenes said, though he added they went off 鈥渘ot with all the intensity鈥 of years past.
Germ谩n Miranda, one of hundreds of faithful who showed up for the procession at the Managua Cathedral, was one of those who found it less inspiring this year.
He said Holy Week celebrations were better in the past when they wound through the streets of the capital. 鈥淚t was better before, because it was freer."
Miranda said he hoped the government and the church could 鈥渞econcile, to give us a better future.鈥
On Thursday, Ortega's wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, lashed out at those who complained.
鈥淲e see it as part of a manipulation by those who do not believe in God, who do not live as Christians, who do not know how to be respectful or show solidarity,鈥 Murillo said.
Earlier this week, the government expelled a Panamanian parish priest, Donaciano Alarc贸n, who police accused of holding an Easter-week procession and attempting to 鈥渟tir up the people.鈥
Alarc贸n said police forced him into a patrol vehicle Monday after he celebrated Mass in the rural town of Cusmapa and drove him to the border with Honduras, 鈥淭hey made me cross and told me, 鈥榊ou are out of the country, and you can鈥檛 come back in,'鈥 he told a radio station in Panama.
Alarc贸n denied lthere was any procession. 鈥淚 did not lead a procession, because they are prohibited,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 was the first to tell people that there would be no procession.鈥
Since anti-government street protests broke out in 2018, Ortega has banned all opposition demonstrations in Nicaragua and has also restricted Catholic activities. He says Catholic figures sympathetic to the opposition are 鈥渢errorists.鈥
In March, the Vatican closed its embassy in Nicaragua after Ortega's government proposed suspending diplomatic relations, the latest episode in a years-long crackdown on the church.
Dozens of religious figures have been arrested or fled the country. Two congregations of nuns, including from the Missionaries of Charity order founded by Mother Teresa, were expelled last year, and Bishop Rolando 脕lvarez was sentenced to 26 years in prison after he refused to board a plane that would have flown him to exile in the United States.
Pope Francis had remained largely silent on the issue, apparently not wanting to inflame tensions, but in a March 10 interview with Argentine media outlet Infobae he called Ortega鈥檚 government a 鈥渞ude dictatorship鈥 led by an 鈥渦nbalanced鈥 president.
In Nicaragua 鈥渨e have a bishop in prison, a very serious and capable man, who wanted to give his testimony and did not accept exile,鈥 Francis said, referring to 脕lvarez. 鈥淚t is something from outside of what we are living, as if it were a communist dictatorship in 1917 or a Hitlerian one in 1935.鈥
