SW News: The Nicaraguan dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice-president Rosario Murillo has once again attacked the Catholic Church in the nation by preventing retired priests from accessing their retirement funds.
The report "Nicaragua, a persecuted Church?" details more than 500 attacks against the Church in the nation since 2018. It says senior priests are not receiving their pensions from the national priestly insurance fund, the product of years of contributions, due to the blocking of bank accounts belonging to the Catholic Church.

The Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua set up the national fund for priests more than 20 years ago. It is intended as a retirement fund. Researcher and lawyer Martha Patricia Molina presented this report on May 3, which details at least 529 attacks perpetrated by the dictatorship of Ortega in the last 5 years, 90 of them committed so far in 2023. The report exposes the hostilities, persecution, siege, desecration, destruction, theft, expulsions, and confiscations by the dictatorship.
The report states that in 2022 the Catholic Church in Nicaragua suffered 161 attacks – the highest number in the last five years – and 90 in 2023 till May. In addition to the money collected during the Ash Wednesday collections, the fund also gets $150 annually from active priests, parishes, and other religious organizations.

In May, the dictatorship dealt a heavy blow to the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, ordering the blocking of the bank accounts of several dioceses and parishes in the country. The dictatorship also confiscated the assets of 222 political prisoners deported to the US in February.

Molina said that from this fund, a pension of $300 is allocated for priests aged 75 and over, and $150 for priests who are 65 or older.