The Nicaraguan government has lashed out at the Vatican following an interview that Bishop Rolando Álvarez gave last week to the Spanish-language edition of EWTN News in Rome.

“We are speaking out against statements made on behalf of the Vatican state from websites and platforms that are their own, statements that constitute an insult to the sovereignty and dignity of the Nicaraguan state,” the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a letter published in Spanish and English on Feb. 8.

“The statements cited are irresponsible and disrespectful and violate the supreme laws and legislation that govern the independent life of our blessed Nicaragua. Furthermore, without any supranational political authority, the Vatican state seeks to assign positions and powers that it purports to grant in Nicaragua to persons who ceased to be Nicaraguans, due to improper and intolerable conduct,” the letter from the Nicaraguan government stated.

Although the text does not specify which statements it refers to, the reaction of the regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, took place shortly after the EWTN interview with Álvarez, the bishop Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of Estelí, which was published Feb. 6 in ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. CNA translated and adapted the article here.

In the interview, Bishop Álvarez, who spoke in a personal capacity and not as a representative of the Vatican, said that when he arrived in Rome he intended to submit his resignation to Pope Francis. “But I found the goodness of God and the Holy Father who want me to continue being the ordinary of Matagalpa and the apostolic administrator of Estelí, even though I am in the diaspora,” the prelate told EWTN.

“I love my people very much, I love my town and I want to tell them that I am a bishop for the universal Church. That is, I was ordained bishop for Matagalpa. I am the visible head of Matagalpa and the apostolic administrator of Estelí and I will continue being so as long as God wants,” he noted in the interview.

Bishop Álvarez was sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison on Feb. 10, 2023, accused of “treason” for denouncing the excesses of the dictatorship and was stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship, as has happened to numerous political prisoners, including other members of the Catholic Church. In January 2024, he was deported to the Vatican.

Neither ACI Prensa nor EWTN, its parent company, are websites or platforms of the Vatican, but rather independent, lay-run media outlets that report on the Catholic Church.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.