The Ortega regime‘s ban on religious processions during Lent is only the latest action to effectively criminalize Catholicism in Nicaragua. Catholics in the U.S. must assist refugees and fight anti-religious authoritarianism.

Imprisoned Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez appeared unexpectedly on Nicaraguan television March 24, more than six weeks after refusing to be exiled from his country, opting instead to face his sentence of 26 years behind bars. 

Seventy-five years after Gandhi’s death, when Hindu nationalism has risen to the highest echelons of the Indian government, his legacy in the nation he helped liberate is complex and, in some cases, denigrated.

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.

The “Doctrine of Discovery” is the leveraging of the idea of discovery to argue for and put into law a claim on and right to indigenous lands. It has no current and actively sustained legal connection.

When Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Aug. 30, first met with Pope John Paul in December 1989, less than a month after the Berlin Wall’s collapse, the two leaders “understood each other immediately.”