The Nicaraguan seminarian Alester Sáenz Centeno will be ordained a deacon in Rome after nearly three years of exile

Seminarian Alester de Jesús Sáenz Centeno will be ordained a deacon on October 10 at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. (Networks of Nicaraguans in exile) Seminarian Alester de Jesús Sáenz Centeno, expelled from Nicaragua in January 2024 along with 18 other religious figures, will be ordained a deacon on Saturday, October 10, at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. The ceremony will take place nearly three years after his forced departure from the country, amid the offensive that the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has maintained against the Catholic Church since 2018. Sáenz Centeno was part of the group of 19 religious figures who were released from prison and sent to the Vatican on January 13, 2024. Among them were the bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez; the bishop of Siuna, Isidoro Mora; 15 priests; and two seminarians. The young man, a native of Mina Rosita, was pursuing his formation at the Nuestra Señora de Fátima Interdiocesan Seminary when police detained him on December 20, 2023. The arrest took place alongside Mora and another seminarian, Tony Palacio, one day after the bishop of Siuna publicly expressed his support for Álvarez, who at the time remained imprisoned and had been sentenced to more than 26 years in prison. According to Despacho 505, the ceremony will be presided over by Cardinal Baldo Reina, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome. Sáenz Centeno is among 11 candidates announced by the Italian diocese. Ten will be assigned to Rome, and the Nicaraguan will be ordained for another diocese, which was not identified. Under the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, many leaders of the Catholic Church have had to leave Nicaragua. Diaconal ordination constitutes a stage prior to the priesthood. Sáenz Centeno will thus continue his religious path outside Nicaragua, a country he has not been able to return to since his expulsion. The seminarian's case is part of a policy of harassment against religious leaders and organizations that intensified after the April 2018 protests. Priests and bishops then participated in mediation efforts, offered refuge to protesters, and denounced human rights violations — actions that deteriorated the relationship between the regime and the Catholic hierarchy. Since then, the authorities have detained religious figures, expelled foreign and Nicaraguan priests, stripped people of their nationality, confiscated properties, and canceled the legal status of institutions linked to the Church. Processions, pilgrimages, and other celebrations outside church buildings have also been restricted. The case of Rolando Álvarez became one of the central figures of this crisis. He was arrested in August 2022 and sentenced in February 2023 for crimes that included "treason against the homeland," after refusing to be sent to the United States along with a group of political prisoners. In January 2024 he was released from prison and deported to the Vatican along with Mora, priests, and seminarians, including Sáenz Centeno. Bishop Rolando Álvarez remained imprisoned under a sentence of more than 26 years before his banishment. (EFE/Stringer) The official pressure also reached educational institutions and religious organizations. The government canceled the legal status of the Society of Jesus and confiscated the assets of the Central American University, administered by the Jesuits. In recent years, in addition, closures of Catholic and evangelical associations have been ordered. The situation affected the Church's territorial presence, especially in small communities that depended on priests who were expelled or forced to leave the country. Several religious figures who remain in Nicaragua carry out their activities under police surveillance and with limitations on holding public acts of worship. Sáenz Centeno's ordination in Rome will thus be linked to one of the consequences of that policy: a seminarian who was detained before completing his formation in Nicaragua will take the next step toward the priesthood thousands of kilometers from his home diocese.