In Nicaragua, Holy Week celebrations limited by government

By GABRIELA SELSER
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Roman Catholics in Nicaragua have had to hold traditional “Stations of the Cross” and other Holy Week processions on church grounds or inside the churches amid a ban on public demonstrations. Relations between autocratic President Daniel Ortega and the church have frayed to near non-existence since Nicaragua’s government proposed severing relations and sentenced a bishop to 26 years in prison. Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes says celebrations were held Friday throughout the country “near the churches.” But he adds that they went off “not with all the intensity” of years past.