Message of Father General, Fr. Miguel Márquez Calle, OCD.
The Discalced Carmel holds and embraces the Church and the Nicaraguan people. Today we are all for Nicaragua. The Teresian Carmel wishes to express its full solidarity with the Nicaraguan Church, which suffers because of its fidelity to the Gospel and the defense of the dignity and freedom of every human being.
I would like to ask the whole Order to pray together, to be «a merciful resistance» and for perseverance.
Spirituality and prayer in Carmel are always a source of truth and courage to be with the Church, with those who suffer, and with the poor. In Nicaragua, we have a parish, a monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns and Secular Carmelites. They are presences, like so many others in Nicaragua, who have as their sole interest that of living and proclaiming the Gospel by their life and care for the dignity of every human being and their freedom, with prayer and without cost. With the Discalced Carmelite Friars, Nuns, and Secular Carmelites we light our lamps asking for light, wisdom, humility and listening, for those who have the authority to serve defending freedom and truth.
Dear Church of Nicaragua, with Teresa of Jesus and John of the Cross, with all the Saints of Carmel, we wish to invoke and ask for all of you the humble boldness and freshness of those who are in the middle of the people in order to give life and sow seeds of fraternity and reconciliation. We make your pain and restlessness our own.
Let us pray insistently, without losing heart, without losing our heads, that in every city, in every country, in Nicaragua and throughout Latin America, there may always be paths of peace, dialogue, respect, coexistence in diversity, faith and hope, and that the Gospel may continue to be a seed of peace in truth.
We express to you our fraternal friendship and our closeness in prayer, trusting in the words of Jesus: «I am with you always, to the end».
We learned with great sorrow of the violent arrest by the police of Msgr. Rolando Álvarez Lagos, bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa. As Teresian Carmelites, «children of the Church», we feel great sadness to see the people of Nicaragua deprived of another faithful servant of the Gospel. I invite you to pray for this bishop, a defender of human dignity in the name of Christ, so that his integrity may be respected and he will be released immediately.
Fr Miguel Márquez Calle, ocd
General
Rome, 19th of August 2022
