Nicaragua has released more than 200 political prisoners, including Catholic priests, students, and opponents of the regime, who were taken from detention in deplorable conditions and sent to the United States.

Six churchmen and a diocesan communicator were sentenced to 10 years in prison on conspiracy charges as Nicaragua’s increasingly tyrannical regime continues its persecution of the Catholic Church.

The nation with the highest Catholic Mass attendance could be Nigeria, as 94 percent of self-identified Nigerian Catholics said they attended daily or weekly Mass, in a new study.

While the violence makes headlines. peaceful protests that have drawn thousands of campesinos from around Peru’s Altiplano have received no attention.

Bishop Álvarez briefly materialized in Managua for a pre-trial hearing, accused of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news.” A frequent government critic, Bishop Álvarez had strongly objected to the closing of Catholic radio and television stations last year.

“This has no place in democratic coexistence,” Cardinal Odilo Scherer tweeted on the day of the riots.