Bishop Álvarez told the Spanish outlet La Gaceta de Albacete that the Nicaraguan clergy he was visiting around Europe were “my sons, my brothers, my friends, my closest partners in the apostolic mission to evangelise the Lord has entrusted to me”.
“Without my priests, I could not work,” he said, during a visit to Spain’s Diocese of Albacete on 12 January. “That’s why I’m spending all the time necessary on them and the seminarians who represent the future of the clergy.”
The diocese, in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia, is twinned with Álvarez’s Diocese of Matagalpa, a predominantly rural diocese in central Nicaragua comprising 28 parishes spread across an area of 2,500sqmi, where 75 per cent of the 600,000 inhabitants are Catholics.
Álvarez’s visit marked the centenary of the canonical foundation of his diocese. He said: “Albacete welcomes priests of my dioceses so they can study in the Catholic university of Valencia. I feel very at home here because I find a domestic church that reminds me greatly of my own diocese.”
He said since arriving in Europe he had imparted spiritual exercises to cloistered Dominican nuns in Greece before visiting three Matagalpa seminarians in Toledo and two seminarians and two priests of his diocese in Seville, “to find out how they are and how they feel”. He also visited two other Nicaraguan priests in Valencia and another three in Albacete.
Álvarez arrived in Rome on 14 January 2024 after serving 500 days of a 26-year-prison sentence in Nicaragua on charges of treason, undermining national integrity and spreading false news. Placed under house arrest in August 2022, he had been transferred to prison the following February, just 24 hours after refusing exile to the United States alongside 222 detained opponents of Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega.
Earlier this month, Ortega’s government revoked the legal status of the Foundation of Contemplative Dominican Nuns, the latest in a series of legal cancellations which have affected more than 5,400 religious groups and charities in Nicaragua. These include the Jesuits and the Missionaries of Charity, while at least 74 Catholic-sponsored organisations including universities, Caritas branches and charitable projects have been closed.
Asked how the Church endured challenges, Álvarez spoke of the “loving” letter Pope Francis had written to the Nicaraguan people on 2 December 2024: “We remember this with gratitude,” he said.
“The Pope is encouraging us saying, ‘Do not forget the loving providence of the Lord who accompanies us and is our only sure guide. It is just in the most difficult times when on a human level it seems impossible to understand what God wants of us that we are called to trust without doubt in his care and mercy.’”
He added that the Pope had invited Nicaraguans to “fix” their gaze on “Mary most Immaculate,” as a “shining witness” to trust in God. Francis wrote that Nicaraguans had “experienced her as a maternal refuge” in all their needs, expressing their gratitude to Mary in a “rich, beautiful” spirituality.
Álvarez added: “That is why we are always open to Mary, the Immaculate conception. She is the patron of Nicaragua.”
He said that all he wanted for 2025 was “to do the Lord’s will”. “That is where we find our peace and hope,” he said. “I’m only asking the Holy Spirit to help me discern the voice of God inside me, in the signs of the times, in historical events and every time I encounter another person.”
Asked for a message for young people, Álvarez said he would encourage them to contemplate the Holy Family, drawing inspiration from the “yes” to God given by Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
“I’d ask them to be brave, creative and innovative, that they should not be afraid and keep the energy needed to transform the world into a place that is better for other people.”