This is important: Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said "O can confirm that the Holy See has been asked to receive 12 priests from #Nicaragua who were recently released from prison. The Holy See has agreed; they will be received by an official of the Secretariat of State" today. They will be hosted by the Archdiocese of Rome.

Not among the 12? Bishop Rolando Alvarez whom, along with the freed priests, was arrested by a dictatorial government that is trying to quiet the Catholic Church, locally a prophetic voice against the government's oppression.

The government of Nicaragua has just taken away the juridical status of the Society of Jesus there.

It's not clear what this will mean, but peopme on the ground tell me it migbt mean the two Jesuit schools will be closed.

There are 19 Jesuits in #Nicaragua today. This follows the closing of the Jesuit University in Managua, and the expropriation of the grounds (including the Priest's home).
Some 600 University students are now being banned from enrolling in other universities.

Following Pope Francis’s comments to @infobae comparing the government of #Nicaragua to the communist and Hitler's dictatorships calling it "disgusting" and praising wrongfully imprisoned Bishop Alvarez, the government officially broke diplomatic ties with the Holy See. Francis’s comments, the strongest thus far on #Nicaragua, came after the government closed the offices of Caritas. This is important, and serves as context for other situations: in Venezuela, for instance, Caritas is one of a handful of international NGOs allowed to help people.

As we had anticipated, the #Vatican released a statement just now, defending the work carried out by the now former Papal representative in #Nicaragua, calling his forced exit from the country "incomprehensible." cruxnow.com/church-in-the-… "The Holy See has received with surprise and sorrow the communication that the Government of Nicaragua has decided to withdraw to
Sommertag, Apostolic Nuncio in Managua since 2018, imposing on him to leave the Country immediately after notifying him of this measure.

@austeni @ilintar @mfjlewis @rightscholar Hi Austen! Thank you for looping me in. As you know, I don't usually engage on Twitter, but to every rule there's an exception. Goes without saying the opinions/analysis I'm about to express are my own, and don't replace what I've reported on the case thus far, which is extensive @austeni @ilintar @mfjlewis @rightscholar I know this is not Twitter’s usual protocol, but please, take the thread as a whole, not each tweet individually.

In Santiago, #Chile, yet another Catholic church is attack. This time, the parish of Vera Cruz, one of the oldest ones in the country construction completed in 1857.
This is at least the fifth Catholic Church attacked/vandalized in the past few days.
(A thread). Sources on the ground tell me that the relics from various saints that were inside the church were taken out yesterday: they were afraid something like this would happen. Similar actions are being conducted to protect other churches.

Chile: Earlier today, protestors entered the Church of the Ascension, in downtown Santiago, taking paintings and and pews, to set up barricades, reportedly in an attempt to burn down the nearby University Pedro de Valdivia.
(A thread) During the past three weeks, hundreds of thousands in Chile took to the streets to protests the country’s situation, particularly the inequality in what has often been considered the most stable and one of the wealthiest countries of Latin America.

A thread on the perils of covering the Catholic Church in Argentina, using my parents home as base.
In the past 5 years, being a journalist at @Crux has allowed me to learn about the situation of the Catholic Church in every continent but Antarctica. (Looking at you @cwwhite212!) Some of the trips I've made were as one of the journalists traveling on the papal plane. Others, with @Crux's editor, @JohnLAllenJr. But many, like my first trip to Iraq, or Ukraine or Nicaragua, I did on my own. When this was the case, my parents usually found out after the fact

.@valealazraki speaking at #PBC2019: "At first glance, there is little in common between you, bishops and cardinals, and me, a Catholic lay woman with no particular position in the Church, and moreover a journalist [and maybe that doesn't help]." "Yet we share something very powerful: we all have a mother; we are here because a woman gave birth to us. Compared to you, perhaps I have an additional privilege: I am a mother first and foremost."