Nicaragua’s government has proposed suspending relations with the Vatican days after Pope Francis reportedly compared President Daniel Ortega’s administration to a communist or Nazi dictatorship amid a crackdown on the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis today publicly denounced the sentencing of Nicaragua’s Bishop Rolando Álvarez to 26 years and four months in prison.

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.