- Feb 5, 2002
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (OSV News) — Authorities in the city of León, Nicaragua, chose an unusual place for setting up a boxing ring and staging prize fights: the courtyard of the local cathedral. They even scheduled the matches for April 19 — just as Bishop René Sándigo of León was celebrating his birthday.
“The boxing ring was a dismal gift that the dictatorship sent to Monsignor René Sándigo on his birthday. The dictators didn’t even respect that. Criminal, vulgar and temple-profaning dictatorship,” Martha Patrica Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who documents hostilities against the Catholic Church, posted on X April 20.
The staging of spectacles outside of places of worship escalates the repression against Catholics in Nicaragua, where regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, have branded priests and bishops as “terrorists” and “coup mongers,” while curtailing public demonstrations of faith — such as processions and patron saint celebrations.
The staging of boxing matches outside of churches has disrupted activities inside, impeded access or forced Masses to be canceled and left a mess on church property — with spectators urinating on the walls of the León cathedral — according to reports gathered by Molina.
“The boxing events in Nicaragua generally happen in stadiums. … But they’re doing this to offend the Catholic faith,” Molina told OSV News.
Continued below.
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“The boxing ring was a dismal gift that the dictatorship sent to Monsignor René Sándigo on his birthday. The dictators didn’t even respect that. Criminal, vulgar and temple-profaning dictatorship,” Martha Patrica Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who documents hostilities against the Catholic Church, posted on X April 20.
Boxing matches outside churches
“The Sandinista dictatorship orders the mayors’ offices to use the atriums of parishes to carry out pagan activities and thus desecrate churches,” she said in another April 20 post. “Masses have had to be suspended in some churches” due to noise, Molina said.The staging of spectacles outside of places of worship escalates the repression against Catholics in Nicaragua, where regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, have branded priests and bishops as “terrorists” and “coup mongers,” while curtailing public demonstrations of faith — such as processions and patron saint celebrations.
The staging of boxing matches outside of churches has disrupted activities inside, impeded access or forced Masses to be canceled and left a mess on church property — with spectators urinating on the walls of the León cathedral — according to reports gathered by Molina.
“The boxing events in Nicaragua generally happen in stadiums. … But they’re doing this to offend the Catholic faith,” Molina told OSV News.
Continued below.
Human rights advocate: Dictatorship profanes Nicaraguan churches
Human rights advocate and Nicaraguan lawyer Martha Molina warns that the Sandinista dictatorship orders the mayors' offices to use the atriums of parishes to carry out "pagan activities" and thus "desecrate churches."
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