Walter Sánchez Silva
Walter Sánchez Silva is a senior writer for ACI Prensa (https://www.aciprensa.com). With more than 15 years of experience, he has reported from important ecclesial events in Europe, Asia and Latin America during the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. E-mail: walter@aciprensa.com
Articles by Walter Sánchez Silva
UN calls on Nicaragua to free Bishop Álvarez and other political prisoners
Mar 7, 2023 / 13:15 pmThe Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on the Nicaraguan dictatorship to release Bishop Rolando Álvarez.
Mexican bishops condemn police pursuit, violent arrest of migrants on cathedral grounds
Mar 6, 2023 / 15:30 pmThe Ciudad Juárez Cathedral has long been one of the places where migrants are received, as the city sits on the opposite side of the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.
Syrian Catholic monk once kidnapped by ISIS consecrated archbishop
Mar 6, 2023 / 15:00 pmFather Jacques Mourad was consecrated as the new archbishop of Homs, Syria.
Aid to the Church in Need ‘greatly concerned’ about Nicaraguan bishop sentenced to prison
Mar 3, 2023 / 17:30 pmThe pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need expressed its concern for the situation of the Church in Nicaragua and for Bishop Rolando Álvarez.
Mexican bishops respond to data showing increasingly fewer Catholics in their country
Mar 2, 2023 / 11:34 amOne of the challenges facing the bishops of the Catholic Church in Mexico is the decrease in the number of faithful in their country.
Order of cloistered nuns leaves Nicaragua after 22 years
Mar 1, 2023 / 15:30 pmIn a Feb. 27 post on their Facebook page, the nuns explained: “We, the Trappist Sisters of Nicaragua, have voluntarily left the country.”
Dictatorship in Nicaragua bans Stations of the Cross in the streets
Feb 28, 2023 / 14:30 pmThe Nicaraguan dictatorship has prohibited holding the Stations of the Cross in the streets the same week Ortega accused the Church of being a “mafia.”
Nicaraguan bishop responds to insults by Daniel Ortega, calling him ‘corrupt and criminal’
Feb 24, 2023 / 11:37 amSilvio Báez, the exiled auxiliary bishop of Managua living in the United States, responded Tuesday to the most recent insults and attacks by the Nicaraguan dictator.
Latin American bishops pray for Nicaraguan Bishop Álvarez at cathedral where St. Oscar Romero is buried
Feb 14, 2023 / 09:45 amRomero was an outspoken critic of political injustice in the country and of the violence affecting the lives of ordinary Salvadorians.
Priest shot to death in Mexico
Feb 13, 2023 / 12:20 pmThe Diocese of San Juan de Los Lagos in Jalisco state, Mexico, mourned the Feb. 10 shooting death of one of its priests, Father Juan Angulo Fonseca.
Nicaragua’s dictatorship sentences Bishop Rolando Álvarez to 26 years in prison
Feb 10, 2023 / 18:00 pmThe Ortega regime sentenced the bishop on Friday, Feb. 10, to 26 years and four months in prison, accusing him of being a “traitor to the homeland.”
Why persecuted Nicaragua bishop turned down the chance to leave the country
Feb 10, 2023 / 14:45 pmBishop Rolando Álvarez refused to leave Nicaragua along with the 222 political prisoners who were deported by the Daniel Ortega dictatorship Feb. 9.
Priest kidnapped in Haiti; captors demand ransom
Feb 8, 2023 / 16:00 pmThe Claretian Missionaries’ Independent Delegation for the Antilles reported that on Feb. 7 one of its priests was kidnapped.
Spanish priest calls out Father James Martin for his ‘poisoned doctrine’ on homosexuality
Jan 24, 2023 / 14:30 pmFather Francisco José Delgado said that “Martin, an American Jesuit, has the habit of speaking out on social media in a scandalous way against the Catholic faith.”
2022 was the worst year for the Catholic Church in Nicaragua
Dec 29, 2022 / 14:00 pmLawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina Montenegro reported that “2022 was the most disastrous year for the Nicaraguan Catholic Church.”
French ‘influencer’ priest posts video parodies of Mass, apologies to those who ‘may have felt hurt’
Nov 15, 2022 / 16:36 pmA French “influencer” priest who was asked by the Vatican to help out with a survey for the Synod on Synodality has sparked controversy for his videos.
A million march throughout Mexico for women, life, and peace
Oct 10, 2022 / 12:40 pmThe marches took place Oct. 8–9 in cities in 30 states “in favor of the causes of women, the protection of human life, and for peace in Mexico.”
Italian court acquits three Legionaries of Christ of extortion charges
Oct 4, 2022 / 17:20 pmThe Legionaries of Christ announced Monday the conclusion of a judicial process in the Ordinary Court of Milan involving three priests and two other persons in Italy.
Guatemalan cardinal responds to Daniel Ortega’s attack on the Church
Oct 4, 2022 / 14:16 pmCardinal Álvaro Leonel Ramazzini Imeri of Huehuetenango gave a spirited response to Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega, who a few days ago verbally attacked Pope Francis and said that the Catholic Church is “the perfect dictatorship.”
Violence and corruption won’t build up Chile, cardinal says at independence prayer service
Sep 19, 2022 / 13:06 pmCardinal Celestino Aós Braco of Santiago de Chile said in a prayer service marking the country’s independence that neither violence nor corruption will build Chile.