Why things matter, Feds in the pews, and the places we go to sit down

Michie · Feb 11, 2023

The News

Several priests, seminarians, and Church employees were among 222 political prisoners forcibly deported from Nicaragua this week.

According to a deportation order obtained by The Pillar, the list did not include jailed Bishop Rolando Álvarez, but did include many of his close collaborators.

As our correspondent Edgar Beltrán reported, among the deportees is Fr. Óscar Benavidez, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail and “civil death” for his opposition to the brutal Ortega dictatorship.

Civil death, officially known as “perpetual loss of citizen rights,” means the condemned loses their right to Nicaraguan nationality, to have an ID card, a passport, a work permit, a driver’s license, and even civil rights such as free speech and association. That’s the kind of treatment Catholics are receiving in Nicaragua.

This is a very important story, read the whole thing.

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This Lent, you’re going to notice some changes in the confessional. At least I hope you will.

The formula for the words of absolution is changing. And there’s a new act of contrition — actually it’s kind of an old one that’s now newly approved, which is a little tricky to explain… so we did an explainer.

Continued below.