Nicaragua

Nicaragua, located in Central America between Honduras and Costa Rica, has a Catholic majority, but its population also includes Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, and adherents of Myalism-Obeah. According to the 2005 census, in a population of 4,537,200 people, 58.5% are Catholic, 23.2% are Protestant, 2.5% profess other religions, and 15.7% declare none.

In 1523, the first of the Spanish conquistadors arrived, bringing the Roman Catholic apostolic religion to the animist aboriginals and building a church in 1524. In 1620, British explorers conquered the Caribbean coast and founded some Anglican missions; missionaries of the Moravian Church arrived in the Caribbean in 1849.

In 1881, the Nicaraguan president, Joaquín Zavala, expelled the Jesuit order under the suspicion of their provoking an aboriginal rebellion against the government. Under the regime of José Santos Zelaya, conflicts escalated; Zelaya separated the Catholic Church from the state, established schools with Protestant teachers, and in 1899 exiled Bishop Simeón Pereira y Castellón.

Several Protestant denominations later became established: the Central American Mission (1900), Seventh-Day Adventists (1904), Baptist Convention of the North (1917), and God's Assemblies (1919); their growth was slow but accelerated in the 1960s.

The American Capuchins created “Delegates of the Word” in 1967, raising awareness among farmers and organizing lay people for a political pastoral project against the Somoza dictatorship (1937–1979). With a similar objective and inspired by Liberation Theology, the Ecclesiastical Communities of Base were founded (Comunidades Eclesiales de Base, CEB) in Managua in 1970, and subsequently spread throughout the country. Miguel Obando y Bravo was appointed archbishop and condemned the dictatorship. The Sandinista Rebellion triumphed in 1979, and four priests were named ministers: Miguel D'Escoto, Foreign Relationships; Ernesto Cardenal, Culture; Fernando Cardenal, Education; and Edgar Parrales, Social Affairs. Thus, the “Church of the Poor” began during the Sandinista regime.

Following a visit from Pope John Paul II in 1983, the archbishop began an offensive against the government and denounced the “Church of the Poor.” In 1975, Miguel Obando y Bravo was appointed Cardinal of Central America and met with the opposing parties, businessmen, armedopposition chiefs, and the U.S. government in an effort to debilitate the regime.

In 1990, the Sandinista Front of National Liberation lost in the national elections, and the [Page 919]CEBs retreated, delegitimated by the Catholic hierarchy. According to Pierre Vayssière, during the following decade, the Church collaborated with neoliberal policies, leaving the impoverished population isolated in the CEB while Protestant churches grew.

As a result of pressure by the Catholic Church, the government's sexual education guide was withdrawn in 2003, owing to what was characterized as a lack of Christian values. Afterward, in 2006, the Alliance for Life (a Catholic-Protestant partnership) obtained congressional support for reform of the Penal Code, which was approved in 2007 and which penalizes therapeutic abortion. Although previously legal in Nicaragua, at present abortion is illegal in all cases, even if the mother's life is in danger.