Preparations for widely popular Lent and Holy Week processions are underway across Latin America – but not in Nicaragua.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is offering to help try to gain the release of a Roman Catholic bishop imprisoned in Nicaragua.

Roman Catholics in Nicaragua have had to hold traditional “Stations of the Cross” and other Holy Week processions on church grounds or inside the churches amid a ban on public demonstrations.

The Vatican has closed its embassy in Nicaragua after the country's government proposed suspending diplomatic relations.

Nicaragua ’s government says it has proposed suspending relations with the Vatican days after Pope Francis compared President Daniel Ortega’s administration to a communist or Nazi dictatorship amid a crackdown on the Catholic Church in the country.

Dozens of priests, nuns, seminarians and church workers have fled Nicaragua in recent years, or been exiled by President Daniel Ortega’s government, which considers them a threat.

Pope Francis on Sunday expressed sadness and worry at the news that Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez, an outspoken critic of the Nicaraguan government, had been sentenced to 26 years in prison in the latest move against the Catholic Church and government opponents.

A judge in Argentina has launched a criminal investigation into Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario María Murillo to determine whether they are responsible for crimes against humanity.

Nicaraguan police have raided the residence of a Roman Catholic bishop, detaining him and several other people holed up inside for two weeks.

A Roman Catholic bishop in Nicaragua has begun an “indefinite fast” inside a church to protest increasing harassment from national police, who he said followed him throughout the entire previous day.