Letter from Fr General Sosa regarding UCA Nicaragua

The Ateneo community is invited to read the letter of Fr General Arturo Sosa SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, to Fr Jose Domingo Cuesta SJ, Provincial Curia of Central America, on the seizure of Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) (Central American University) in Managua, Nicaragua, by the present government regime in Nicaragua.

You may read more on the Nicaraguan authorities' seizure of UCA in this Associated Press article.

PGN 2023/18
Rome, 17 August 2023

Fr José Domingo Cuesta, S.J.
Provincial Curia of Central America
San Salvador

Dear Father Provincial:

It is with great surprise and even greater pain for the consequences for the youth and for all the people of Nicaragua that I have received the news of the unjust measure of seizure and confiscation of the assets of the Central American University, UCA, of Managua, by the institutions that make up the present government regime in Nicaragua.

I wish to express to you at this time my solidarity and that of the whole Society of Jesus, with you, with the Central American Province and with all the work that the UCA, its Directors, its teaching and administrative staff have been doing since its beginnings in 1960, and especially in these last few years in which important progress has been made in maturing as a University at the service of the nation.

UCA's service has always been in line with the mission of the Society of Jesus and the Catholic Church. Defending the cause of justice and truth. Promoting the right to think and to an open, democratic and free education. Socially committed to the quality of education and the defence of the rights and lives of the most disadvantaged. All the national and international awards received by the UCA in these 63 years bear witness to this.

We know that all the accusations made against the UCA are totally false and unfounded. Furthermore, the right to a legitimate defence has been denied. A fair trial -with impartial justice-, would bring to light the truth of the whole plot that the government has been executing, since the youth protests of 2018, against the UCA, against many other works of the Catholic Church and against thousands of institutions of Civil Society, with the aim of suffocating, closing or appropriating them. With similar slander they have also outraged the rights of so many people, their reputation, their lives and their property.

I join in calling for this judicial measure against the UCA to be reversed and corrected, for the government's aggression against it and its members to cease, and for paths of dialogue to be opened on the basis of truth, freedom and the right to quality education for young people and for all the people of Nicaragua.

The words of our General Congregation 36 dedicated to those who work in situations of frontier and persecution to defend the truth are valid here: “You are not alone, you are part of an apostolic body whose sole consolation is to be placed with the Son in his suffering as well as in his glory” ... “Friendship gathers us as Friends in the Lord, and calls us to love and serve in all things, together with so many other friends with whom we cooperate, we celebrate, we communicate. Faced with huge challenges and even apparent failure, we still dare to dream of creating with them a different world because we know the One whose ‘power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine’ (Eph 3:20). And so we stand firm, ‘wearing for shoes ... the eagerness to spread the Gospel of peace’ (Eph 6:15).”

Once again, and in a particular way in this moment of the cross, by remaining faithful to Jesus of Nazareth, I reiterate my support and that of the whole Society of Jesus for the mission carried out by the Central American Province at the UCA in Managua. I remain in communion with you, with all our Jesuit companions, and with all those with whom we share the mission and who have put heart, soul and life into making possible what the UCA is today, taking risks so that it may continue to do so for the greater glory of God.

With our complete trust in Him and in His truth that sets us free,

(Sgd.) Arturo Sosa SJ
Superior General