Support for the FSLN among Nicaraguans largely spread through ecclesial base communities, who were introduced to liberation theology and the FSLN through articles written in La Prensa, radio programs, and lessons taught by educated Catholic laypeople. Ecclesial base communities first emerged in Nicaragua in the early 1960s as small, local gatherings of Christians who discussed religious, political, and social matters together. As these communities embraced liberation theology, they rejected the institutional Catholic Church and established connective networks with other base communities. Following two years of FSLN rule, outright opposition to the FSLN from the Catholic hierarchy under Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo cemented the divisions between the institutional Catholic church and ecclesial base communities, which embraced the FSLN and liberation theology throughout the 1980s.