Nicaragua Detains 80-Year-Old Bishop for Praying for Persecuted Church

Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega's government detained Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata Guevara after he prayed for the persecuted Church during Mass, holding him without formal charges while dozens of priests have been exiled and ordinations banned across four dioceses. This is a stark example of the accelerating global pattern of state-sponsored persecution of Christians that Jesus warned would intensify in the last days before His return. Christ specifically foretold that His followers would be handed over to authorities and hated by all nations for His name's sake — a reality now playing out with open brutality in Nicaragua.