He completed further coursework in preparation for his ordination at the Congregation for the Clergy and earned a master's degree in the social doctrine of the Church at the University of Salamanca.

Since then he has worked as a professor and prefect at the seminary of that archdiocese (1994-2006), coordinator of the youth ministry of the archdiocese (since 1998), director of the Catholic radio station Radio Nicaragua (since 2001), secretary of the department for social communications of the Nicaraguan Bishops' Conference (since 2003), Secretary for Information and Spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Managua (since 2005), Coordinator of National Youth Pastoral Care (since 2006), Pastor of the parish of San Francisco de Asís in Managua from 2006 to 2011, and executive secretary of the Secretariat of the Bishops of Central America (SEDAC) from 2009 to 2011.

[1][3][4][5] He was consecrated a bishop on 2 April by Leopoldo Brenes, archbishop of Managua, assisted by Jorge Solórzano Pérez and Henryk Józef Nowacki.

I will fast until such a time as the police, through the president or the vice-president of the Bishops’ Conference, and only them, inform me that they will begin to respect the privacy of my family’s circle".

[11] In 13 December, Álvarez was charged with conspiracy "for undermining national integrity and propagation of false news through information and communication technologies to the detriment of the State and Nicaraguan society."

Álvarez, along with Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega, 15 priests, and two seminarians were exiled to Vatican City.