nicaraguan bishop

Nicaraguan Bishop to Visit Arlington Diocese

By Alfonso Aguilar
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 2/8/07)

Bishop Carlos Enrique Herrera, head of the Diocese of Jinotega, Nicaragua, this week began a working tour of the Arlington Diocese with the goal of closer relations with Hispanic parishioners, especially those from his native country in Central America.
Bishop Herrera’s schedule activities includes a meeting with Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde, a breakfast with the Knights of Columbus, a conference at the Spanish Apostolate’s Office and two special visits, one to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the other to the Franciscan Monastery, both in Washington.
The hosts, the Nicaraguan Catholic Community and the Knights of Columbus (Council 11947) also have announced that the bishop will visit Nicaraguan families in Virginia and Maryland.
The Knights of Columbus will hold a fundraiser dinner in his honor and the visit will conclude with the celebration of Sunday Mass at Blessed Sacrament Church in Alexandria on Feb. 11, at 2 pm.
The Mass is being celebrated for peace and for Nicaraguan families.
“The bishop’s visit has two goals,” said parishioner Onofre Gutiérrez. “First, to send a message to the new communist government that the Nicaraguan community here in the United States will defend the Church. The second goal is to raise money for programs benefiting the poor. As every one knows, Nicaragua is a very poor country.”
Recently, former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega returned to power. Although he has reestablished alliance with the Catholic Church by supporting a new law prohibiting abortion, he is seen as a “communist” who threatens freedom and peace in this small country, the second poorest in the Western Hemisphere, just behind Haiti.
Ortega’s public friendships with leftist presidents in Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Ecuador are also viewed with concerns from conservative segments of the Nicaraguan society.
“Given his ideology and the way he ruined our country in the ‘80s, we have legitimate concerns with his returning,” said Gutiérrez. “He was a real dictator.”
The organizers hope to raise $10,000, which will be sent to Nicaragua with thousands of rosaries.
“The highlight of the visit will occur on Saturday,” said Gutiérrez. “On that day Bishop Herrera will be installed as a Knight of Columbus.”
The ceremony will take place at 9 a.m. in the Social Hall of Blessed Sacrament Parish.
Gutierrez said that in the coming weeks a delegation from the Knights of Columbus will travel to Nicaragua to recommend that the Metropolitan Archbishop, Father Leopoldo Brenes, establish the first Knights of Columbus Council in the country.
Nicaragua has seven dioceses —Managua, León, Matagalpa, Estela, Chontales, Granada, Bluefield and Jinotega. The last of these is the farthest from the Pacific Coast and most of the parishioners are peasants.