MIAMI (OSV News) — Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski spoke to the Florida Catholic Feb. 11 about the expected arrival in Miami of some of the political prisoners released by the Nicaraguan government and flown to the U.S. Feb. 9.

“Most of the people expelled were politicians or candidates for public office that (Daniel) Ortega locked up before the elections,” the archbishop said, but among them were “four or five priests, a couple of seminarians, a deacon and an organist.”

Although they would be taken in at first by Nicaraguan families, Archbishop Wenski said he offered the priests and seminarians longer term housing at St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami.

“I’m offering them the hospitality of the seminary as well as the opportunity to get acclimated, acculturated and see what the next steps would be after that,” he said. At the seminary they could take “intensive English classes” while finalizing their immigration paperwork.

Although the expectation is that many of the priests and seminarians would stay in Miami, “I’ve already heard from a few bishops who need Spanish-speaking priests who would be happy to help them out,” Archbishop Wenski said.

He added that Catholic Charities and Catholic Legal Services of the Archdiocese of Miami were standing by to provide aid and to help the exiles with their immigration paperwork.

“Refugees or migrants arriving in Miami is sort of like a summer thunderstorm,” the archbishop said, noting that a few days earlier 114 Haitians had arrived by boat.

The Nicaraguans were expected to arrive from Washington Feb. 12 and take part in the 1 p.m. Mass normally celebrated at St. Agatha Church by exiled Nicaraguan Bishop Silvio José Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua. He was expected to hold a news conference after the Mass.

Bishop Báez was forced to leave Nicaragua in 2019 after receiving death threats for his criticism of Ortega’s government. He now teaches Scripture at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach but celebrates that weekly Mass at St. Agatha, which is livestreamed via Facebook to Nicaragua.

St. Agatha’s pastor, Father Marcos Somarriba, is a native of Nicaragua. The parish is located near an area of Miami known as Sweetwater, which, since the late 1970s, has been home to a large concentration of Nicaraguan exiles.

“Miami is the epicenter for the Nicaraguan community in the U.S. just like Miami is the epicenter for the Cuban community,” Archbishop Wenski said.

“There’s a lot of pathos in this whole thing,” he added, because a few days earlier, speaking in front of Cuban government officials Feb. 8 at the University of Havana, a papal envoy, Cardinal Benjamin Stella, had mentioned a potential amnesty for those jailed in Cuba after the anti-government protests in July 2021. Cardinal Stella was visiting the island to mark the 25-year anniversary of the historic visit of St. John Paul II.

“What happened in Nicaragua could be something similar to what might happen in Cuba with those political prisoners, so Miami might be on an emotional roller coaster the next few weeks,” Archbishop Wenski said.

By Kate Scanlon

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — A Chinese surveillance balloon flying at high altitudes over the continental U.S. was shot down over the water off the South Carolina coast by U.S. military Feb. 4, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III confirmed in a statement Saturday afternoon.

The balloon, which was first spotted Feb. 2 over Montana, moved southeast across the United States, with sightings in the Midwest and Southeast. Television footage showed a white object falling from the sky just before 3 p.m. Eastern. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights at three airports along the Carolina coastline Saturday afternoon.

“On Wednesday, President Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path,” the statement said. “After careful analysis, U.S. military commanders had determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload.

“In accordance with the president’s direction,” the statement continued, “the Department of Defense developed options to take down the balloon safely over our territorial waters, while closely monitoring its path and intelligence collection activities.”

The balloon, Austin said, was “being used by the (People’s Republic of China) in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States.”

The incident created increasing tensions in already fraught U.S.-China relations, and prompted one Catholic lawmaker to call for a “frank and sober” discussion about China.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Feb. 3 at a press conference that the balloon “has violated U.S. airspace and international law, which is unacceptable.”

Ryder said the balloon is carrying surveillance gear and a payload. “Once the balloon was detected, we acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” he added.

The U.S. State Department said its Secretary Antony Blinken postponed a planned trip to Beijing over the incident.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s spy balloon flying over our country is a serious national security incursion that must have decisive consequences,” Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and a longtime Catholic lawmaker, said in a Feb. 3 statement.

Smith said, “It is long past time that we as a nation have a more frank and sober conversation about the challenges and the costs of a strategic competition with China.”

The Biden administration must “immediately take bold action to counter the great and growing threat posed by Xi Jinping’s Communist regime and safeguard our national security and the livelihoods of the American people,” Smith added.

“Communist dictatorship that brutally abuses, tortures and kills its own people cannot be trusted or appeased,” Smith said. “I will continue to work tirelessly to protect our great nation from those who seek to harm or destroy it and ensure that the U.S. always stands for freedom, justice, and the protection of human rights against the rising tide of authoritarianism.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Feb. 3 that “we are tracking closely and keeping all options on the table.”

China’s foreign ministry issued a statement Feb. 3 claiming the balloon is “civilian in nature, used for meteorological and other scientific research,” and blew off course due to “the influence of westerly winds and its limited control capability.”

“China regrets that the airship strayed into the United States by mistake due to force majeure. China will continue to maintain communication with the U.S. side to properly handle this accident,” the statement said.

Jean-Pierre said the administration noted the statement of regret, “but the presence of this balloon in our airspace, it is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law, and it is unacceptable this occurred.”

Following reports that the balloon was in U.S. airspace above Billings, Montana, near to locations of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile silos and strategic bomber bases, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said in a statement, “This provocation is completely unacceptable, and I am in close contact with Department of Defense and Intelligence officials.”

“We are still waiting for real answers on how this happened and what steps the administration took to protect our country, and I will hold everyone accountable until I get them,” Tester said.