David Agren

"I invite you to join me in prayer for the Church and people of Nicaragua, who celebrate the Purísima" — as the Nicaraguan celebration of the Immaculate Conception is known — "as Mother and Patroness," and lift to her "a cry of faith and hope," Francis said during his Angelus prayer on Dec. 8.

Catholic leaders in Central America expressed alarm over the idea of repealing a national prohibition on extractive activities in El Salvador — putting the church in opposition to the country's popular president.

In a moving letter, Pope Francis expressed his closeness with the people of Nicaragua as Central American bishops called for a day of prayer for the country on the feast of the Immaculate Conception amid constitutional changes that will lead into an even darker dictatorship.

Migrants in Mexico waiting for appointments via the CBP One smartphone app — operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection — face uncertain futures after the U.S. election. Trump has promised mass deportations, a reinforcement of border security and a reimplementation of the "Remain in Mexico" program, which kept migrants in Mexico as their asylum claims were heard in U.S. courts.

The ruling Sandinista regime expelled the president of the Nicaraguan bishops' conference, further decimating the country's Catholic leadership as clergy are forced into exile.

Daniel Hernández Rabanales, along with his wife, Cristina Robledo, never tire of helping migrants — whether feeding caravans or providing meals from a small soup kitchen named for Mother Teresa or taking care packages to the local prison for migrants being held behind bars.

Mexico's election of its first female president showcased gender parity in Mexican politics. But women religious there are wary that Claudia Sheinbaum will reduce violence and poverty. 
 

The Mexican bishops' conference's migrant ministry expressed solidarity with the victims and called for a "serious, impartial and investigation" of the shooting. The migrant ministry added in an Oct. 3 statement, "This tragedy did not arise as an isolated incident, but rather as a consequence of the militarization of immigration policy and the increased presence of armed forces on the country's southern border, which has been a constant."

The Mexican bishops' conference has called on the country's freshly sworn-in president to pursue social peace as she inherits the complicated legacy of her popular and polarizing predecessor, who promoted social programs for the poor, but leaves her a country rife with violence and perceived to be backsliding on democracy.

The Sept. 26, 2014, attack on the students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, a rural teachers college for young men, shocked Mexico, which had become seemingly inured to grizzly stories of drug cartel violence. Ten years later, the case remains in the realm of impunity, despite widespread societal outrage, parental searches and Mexican and international investigations.

The Diocese of Chiclayo denied the accusations of a coverup, saying in a Sept. 10 statement the victims were personally attended to by the then-bishop, Cardinal Robert Prevost — now prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops — in April 2022. Their accusations and the findings of a local investigation, the diocese said, were sent to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which investigates accusations of clerical sexual abuse, in July 2022. The Vatican investigation found insufficient evidence, according to the diocese.
 

Mexico's outgoing president has compared himself to St. Francis of Assisi, highlighting his personal parsimony as a calling card in a country notorious for corrupt politics — while overlooking his own willingness to welcome politicians with checkered records into his political party.

In a homily celebrated Aug. 20 in Panama City for a meeting of bishops and migration pastoral agents, Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told participants, "Pope Francis says that our first two duties toward migrants is to welcome them and protect them."

The Nicaraguan government has extinguished the legal status of more than 25 Catholic organizations, including religious orders such as the Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians, another diocesan Caritas chapter, and lay Catholic groups, as part of an attack on civil society with the closure of 1,500 nongovernmental organizations.

Nicaragua has revoked the legal status of the Caritas chapter in the Diocese of Matagalpa and continued arresting priests and laity there, delivering another blow to a diocese decimated by the detentions and expulsions of clergy and the exile of its bishop to the Vatican.

Venezuela's two most senior clergy warned that harassment of priests from pro-government politicians has the country following in the footsteps of Nicaragua, where democracy has disappeared and the church is persecuted.

Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer in exile who tracks persecution of the Catholic Church, shared figures with OSV News showing 70 priests were serving the diocese — 57 Nicaraguans and 13 foreigners — prior to the regime's attacks on the church. Just 22 priests remain to cover a diocese of 615,858 Catholics and 29 parishes. Four of the priests died; two have retired, but continue to celebrate the sacraments; five were "kidnapped," while three are missing. Thirty of the priests were forced into exile.

Pope Francis has designated the provincial city of Santiago del Estero as Argentina's primatial see in a move described by Catholic leaders as a historic "reparation" and a reflection of his preference for putting the peripheries at the center of church attention.

Hundreds of Mexicans have fled drug cartel violence in southern Chiapas state to neighboring Guatemala, causing the bishop of a Mexico border diocese to ask local authorities: "How long will they live trying to hide a sad and painful reality that we carry day by day?" The trend is a reversal of past decades, when Indigenous Guatemalans fleeing genocide and civil war sought shelter in Mexico.

The Bolivia province of the Society of Jesus failed to follow instructions from the Jesuit curia in Rome by allegedly not publicly disclosing the findings of an investigation into a pedophile priest, deepening a series of clerical sexual abuse scandals engulfing the order in the South American country.