A priest and a nun pray before the burned crucifix in Managua's cathedral. An unidentified man threw a firebomb into a chapel of Managua’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Friday, severely damaging the chapel and a devotional image of Christ more than three centuries old.
“This was a planned act, very calmly planned,” Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes of Managua said. “So I want to say it clearly: it is a terrorist act, an act of intimidating the Church in her mission of evangelisation.”
The man was hooded and held something in his hands that the witnesses could not identify. They also saw the man throw the same object. Following this, he was seen to circle the cathedral for 20 minutes before making an escape.
“In other words, he calculated everything: how to enter, where to do it, and then where to escape. This was planned,” the cardinal said.
Witness
A church worker and a parishioner were in the chapel. They noticed the fire and reported it to authorities. While the man was not identified, witness Alba Ramirez said the man was known to some in the area. According to Radio Corporacion, men in civilian clothes with a threatening attitude were in the vicinity of the cathedral.
The chapel houses a 382-year-old image of the Blood of Christ, a depiction of Jesus Christ crucified.
Cardinal Brenes said due to the fire’s heat “half of the face came off, but the image was charred. We are going to evaluate this calmly because it is a beautiful image more than 300 years old.”
The Archdiocese of Managua said the act was “a totally condemnable act of sacrilege and desecration”.
The apparent attack comes after tensions between some Catholics and supporters of President Daniel Ortega, who previously led the country for over a decade after the Sandinistas’ 1979 ouster of the Somoza dictatorship. Ortega has again been president of Nicaragua since 2007, and oversaw the abolition of presidential term limits in 2014.
Ortega’s government has accused many bishops and priests of siding with his opposition.
Backers of Ortega have led actions against some churches, including Managua’s cathedral when critics of Ortega took refuge there.
On Sunday, Pope Francis turned his thoughts to the cathedral following the Angelus prayer: “I am thinking about the people of Nicaragua who are suffering due to the attack on the Cathedral of Managua,” he said, “where a widely-venerated image of Christ – which accompanied and sustained the lives of the faithful for several centuries – was seriously damaged, almost destroyed.”
“My dear Nicaraguan brothers,” he added, “I am near to you and I am praying for you.”