The battle for Nicaragua
Sheehan, Edward R.F.
CHURCH, CARDINAL, & COMANDANTES The battle for Nicaragua EDWARD R. F. SHEEHAN even physically tortured - kept in tiny...
...conduct processions or celebrate Mass in the open air...
...Archbishop Jaime Ortega sign of welcome...
...It set an example for in schism...
...They against the comunidades in other countries...
...But my Roman education, John United States...
...Furthermore, Monsenor Carlos Santi, a native Italian, a gracious Francis"St...
...Juridically the popular revolution in history made with the massive participation of church remains in communion with Rome, but in practice it's Christians," Padre Ernesto told me...
...Ideologically I am neither of the left nor right, but (I like his senior aides - Monsenor Bosco Vivas, auxiliary bishop of to think) only of the Christian humanist center...
...He was more than the founder of an order, but robes, is bishop of Matagalpa, a cattle and coffee-growing of a grand movement that revolted against feudalism and the province in the center of the country...
...Moreover, Minister of Education Padre Fernando Cardenal I do not suggest that the cardinal's methods in this crisis are dissembled (to say the least) when he told me that Marxism is above reproach...
...because we are revolutionaries...
...Not equally deep suspicion that the contras were a reactionary least of the more recent harassments have been: the detention, right-wing force...
...Show me - page by music for his Mass makes for an extraordinary spectacle of page - where it's Marxist...
...and the permanent army of simple peasants, many of them children who have closure of Iglesia, the church newspaper, and Radio Catolica...
...and repeatedly most of all...
...and arrived at discuss the crisis of church and state...
...He faces a regime determined to control every Miguel D'Escoto, the Sandinista Foreign Minister and a sus- sector of public life...
...The church is the sacraments...
...combining theology with such ardent apologetics for the SanNow listen to Padre Jerez's close friend Fernando Cardenal, dinistas, it is commonly considered to be financed by the Nicaragua's Minister of Education, expelled from the Society government...
...I have no - the popular church is irremediably removed from the disci- doubt that he and John Paul II are the most popular men in pline of the bishops...
...But such obstructions, I objected, at least did not constitute violent persecution...
...His plea that Go to Leon, the city of churches, with perhaps the largest the church should be pastoral, devoted to the poor and social cathedral in Central America, and, it seems at nearly every justice while staying out of politics, makes particular sense in corner, another baroque temple from the seventeenth or Nicaragua...
...The same false accusation has been made attracts less than 10 to 15 percent of Nicaraguans at most...
...own immense popularity among Nicaraguans...
...Marxists who feed the poor are more Christian than the Christians who by their silence are in league with the contras and the United States...
...Santa Maria, Madre de I would also argue that the vast number of Nicaragua's Dios, ruega por nosotros pecadores, ahora y en la hora de Catholics feel likewise...
...Glemp, of course, has munidades are completely politicized to serve the propaganda survived as did Wyszynski before him...
...The New Mexico for example - support the Sandinistas...
...the expulsion from Nicaragua of cent of their commanders are ex-Somocistas, I came to see foreign priests considered hostile to the Sandinistas...
...The marking time, by making small concessions when he must, by comunidades should not be organs of the state...
...In some cases that happened...
...were the celebradores [Delegates of the Word...
...He may be shrewd," the UCA's Padre Cesar Jerez admitted to me that, "In the begin- diplomat riposted, "but he's not very sophisticated...
...the seithem more as actors, bearing a legitimate grievance, in a zure by armed state security forces of the Social Pastoral terrible national tragedy and civil war...
...I don't want such Sandinista leaders as the late Carlos Fonseca and Tomas a fourth meeting...
...His Sunday evening sermons resound in continues (he told me) to live in a Jesuit community and to shouting testaments to " la lucha revolucionaria" [the recelebrate Mass: "An international campaign of calumnies is volutionary struggle] and denunciations of Reagan policy...
...They need free bargaining like a Glemp with a hostile government...
...Marxist analysis forms part of social studies and our a Marxist...
...Other priests and many convinced that the Mindszenty method is the only way -laymen go as far as Bishop Vivas and say that the co- outright confrontation and defiance...
...spectacular murals combining Christian symbols with rev...
...understand it, don't want it, or have never heard of it...
...He receives all his informa- Borge, the present (and much feared) Minister of the Interior...
...We are not persecuted authoritarianism of the pope...
...The Nicaraguan church tion theology, but is so copious and expensively produced, has no apostolic plan to evangelize the new Nicaragua...
...I declare myself a Christian Marxist...
...I visited scores of cathedrals, despotic...
...The sympathizes with the contras and hopes for their eventual primary-school texts, all printed (with an acknowledgment) by victory...
...I have nothing to do with the contras...
...Some Christian role can be historic in the making of these new laymen in the American episcopal conference interfere with revolutions - not against the church but with the church...
...they seem determined not only to divide the labeled him a "traitor...
...wisdom...
...We exert all our influence to counter this...
...the drafting of seminarians of two dioNicaragua's northern border, granting that perhaps 40 per- ceses into military service...
...Today, he is very defensive school system is invalid (to the contrary), only to offer further about that...
...churches, schools, and private homes...
...church in other Catholic countries, the left is trying to do Finally, from the pro-Sandinista clergy, the voice of Padre here...
...I can't abandon my people - that would give me a way to mobilize the youth and women into service for the problem of conscience...
...Catholic Conference as proFundamentos de filosofia marxista-leninista, a Spanish text Sandinista if not an outright enemy...
...We are one church...
...support the [Sandinista] government in its struggle against "The people are with the bishops and the pope," added aggression...
...What the right has done with the ecclesiastical disobedience if not in schism...
...Central America for a book to be published next year...
...sities Marxism is studied, but not in our secondary schools...
...Enter the schisms Rome can rely on two millennia of experience and church of the Subtiava, one of the oldest in the Western usually prevail, however patient it must be and however long hemisphere, and hear the men, women, and children chanting the battle lasts...
...the intransigence of Cardinal Obando, but their respective On the contrary, I suspect that - whatever his insensitivity in positions seem so irreconcilable I wonder if more flexibility some matters - basically he understands all too well...
...imprisonment, and interrogation of more than 150 Catholic After nearly a week with the contra army in Honduras on officials and priests...
...It would best not choose the path of confrontation...
...One report from a D'Escoto sym- church, but to reduce the bishops to impotence...
...I talked with the Holy Father three times...
...He has refused, and is awaiting further Padre Julio Lopez, a Colombian national of the parish, of instructions from his Franciscan superiors...
...Francis of Assisi rejected private property, and he was can of about sixty who prefers his brown habit to his purple revolutionary...
...I still strongly oppose the Reagan policy of den access to television, and with the suspension of Radio giving them weapons, since it would intensify the fratricide in Catolica, "it's obvious that the state intends to forbid our Nicaragua and the grotesque arms race in Central America...
...popular church is to advance and proclaim the propaganda of Now Fernando's brother, Padre Ernesto Cardenal, Minister the government, to twist the words and Gospel of Christ into of Culture, a poet who gained a fame of sorts when the slogans for the Sandinistas, serving their aims of violence, Supreme Pontiff wagged his finger at him at Managua airport hate, and class warfare...
...How else explain the pictures of nuestra muerte...
...The pope - and the Nicaraguan bishops religion confined to two hours per week - the curriculum is - are committing sin by not condemning the contras," Padre wholly dictated by the state, with much emphasis on Marxist Toranzo told me, "including the contra massacres, and by not analysis of the history of the world, of Nicaragua, and of the speaking in favor of patriotic military service against the Nicaraguan revolution...
...He knows that in battling money but all of them evoking a rich ancient culture...
...They're all arms of the government - another dispute...
...Even Padre D'Escoto and the Cardenal brothers, by many accounts, wield Toranzo, the Sandinista Jesuit of Ocotal, admitted that "the no real power...
...I have before me dialogue and reconciliation of all Nicaraguans, there may be at several textbooks running from the first grade of primary least a grain of truth in the standard Sandinista charge that he school through the senior grade of secondary school...
...Witness the recent statements of Padre Nicaragua...
...exactly what he was doing in Miami...
...by the government, but we suffer from restrictions," he told I objected that Innocent III eventually recognized the Fran- me...
...CHURCH, CARDINAL, & COMANDANTES The battle for Nicaragua EDWARD R. F. SHEEHAN even physically tortured - kept in tiny dark cells, in filthy conditions, deprived of food and sleep for days at a time, often THE greatest battle being waged in Nicaragua today is not beaten or more horribly abused - charges supported by the the Sandinista army's war against contras - whom, International League for Human Rights and my own conversathey have, for now at least, largely defeated - but the tions with several former prisoners...
...Moreover, the pontiff, like the church he heads, eighteenth century, deteriorating from neglect and lack of has a keen historical memory...
...through the joyful crowd, where more than one person was Profoundly united around its priests and bishops, fond of giving way to tears, first one, then two, then ten, then hun- colorful ritual, incense, and children's choirs, this church is dreds of handkerchiefs and scarves were raised and waved in nevertheless far from triumphalist...
...We've tried to protect our people from the violence our revolution is love...
...Liberation theology theologian, but he is always completely pro-Sandinista - like confronts the scandal of social misery...
...In Leon, the nation's second Obando's senior aides consider at least one advisor on Latin city, a high-school girl showed me one of her basic textbooks, American affairs to the U.S...
...I reject "Except for one or two priests, we have no `popular church' [Bishop Vivas's accusation] that the comunidades de base are in Matagalpa, gracias a Dios...
...We should support Christ against violence...
...barely reached puberty, have no ideology but their fervent For more than six years, the official church has been forbidCatholicism...
...Thus he is exerting all of his liberation theology, and there are many, in Nicaragua at least it moral force - through Cardinal Obando - to prevent that is a frisson for the intellectuals...
...Witness the censorship of La Prensa, the pended Maryknoll priest...
...tion on Nicaragua from Cardinal Obando, but Nicaragua is not His magazine Amanecer ("Dawn") preaches not only liberaPoland and Obando is not Wyszynski...
...have been the principal determinants of my life...
...we cannot and do not wish to speak in terms of sociology or power...
...He from Obando would have made much difference...
...Thomas Aquinas integrated the philosophy of Aristotle into his "Bishop Vivas loses oxygen" when he talks of the popular own philosophy - and Aristotle was a pagan...
...As the solemn procession wound its way and finally in the reception of Communion...
...CATHOLICS UNDER CASTRO Cuba: the changing climate STANISLAS MAILLARD The law bans religious ceremonies outside church walls, but here was a sign of the government's goodwill: permission to THE VAULTS of the austere cathedral of Havana reverber- use the square in front of the cathedral so the procession might ated with the thundering applause which greeted the enter from the main door rather than the sacristy and - a procession of delegates to the first National Encuentro of greater concession - authorization to broadcast the Mass out the Cuban Church (NECC...
...printed in Moscow by the "Editorial Progreso" in 1982, Certainly Cardinal Obando compromised himself when, densely propagating the unexpurgated Soviet line on dialecti- following his elevation to the Sacred College last spring, and cal and historical materialism, class warfare, and the rest...
...losing its privileges in Nicaragua, and for me the great ques- Next, Padre Uriel Molina, the Sandinista Franciscan who tion is whether the church will decide to evangelize [under directs the Centro Ecumenico Antonio Valdivieso in Managua current conditions] or to confront negatively the new and is pastor of Santa Maria de los Angeles - abounding in Nicaragua...
...We're like a Human Rights in Managua estimates at least 5,500 political bunch of matches - they're not breaking us all together, but in prisoners in Nicaragua, many of them psychologically and pieces, one by one...
...The cardinal and mine...
...My expulsion from the Jesuits was amicable, and I from an ideology and military service for a system they don't don't resent the pope...
...The For example, the independent Permanent Commission for state cannot tolerate a popular religious leader...
...I recently completed a visit of five weeks by incompetent comandantes who have alienated most of throughout much of Nicaragua, where I met many of the their people, ruined the economy, and are growing more central actors in this drama...
...He knew tion much to the exclusion of other philosophies...
...Padre Molina disputes this, though he admits that he number of Monsenor Lopez's priests are pro-Sandinista, yet has been asked to leave Nicaragua by a delegate of the Francis- several priests who espouse liberation theology - such as can superior general...
...He was more than half the crowd, had to yield to the contradictory surrounded by all of Cuba's bishops and specially invited evidence: everyone joined fervently in the chants, the prayers, foreign guests...
...I believe that the prefer the traditional church...
...The state sees that they get all the resources - talks against totalitarianism, but gives no sign of dialogue with money, travel, and access to the media...
...It is published monthly from: 163, bd Malesherbes, endeavor to set up a counter-power in Cuban society...
...Father understands that an intense power struggle is going on, that the 9 May 1986: 267 Sandinistas may indeed intend to wrest control of the Nicara- helps them to endure their misery...
...bishops who are known for their only in the history of Nicaragua but in basic alphabetization conservatism...
...I found the Sandinista conflict between the Marxist government of Managua and the government an ugly, repressive military regime, run at the top church of Rome...
...I think that the mission of the church is to the church," she mused...
...on the way to totalitarianism...
...The suspicion, I understand, of some American the government of East Germany, do not specifically mention bishops that this may be so has complicated the cardinal's Marxism, but they abound in Sandinista indoctrination, not relations even with some U.S...
...Essentially, it seems to me, the pope is right...
...We are allowed no Catholic press, and some of our ciscan order, and that in the interim St...
...This said, and before I conclusions that may not correspond with conventional liberal revert to analysis, let the actors speak for themselves...
...The problem does exist...
...They won't rest "The dispute in Nicaragua today [between the official and until they turn the entire church into another arm of the gov- the popular church ] is not over doctrine or dogma - it's ernment...
...His being waged against Nicaragua, claiming persecution of liturgy is orthodox, though the rock orchestra that provides the priests and that our education is Marxist...
...The [official] church Uriel Molina...
...It's totally politicized and at the service of the in defiance of the cardinal, which would place him in state," says Father Lopez...
...ning, when the revolution came to power, the natural leaders The debate on Obando's methods commonly comes down to...
...constantly) that the nation's schools, from primary through "That's nonsense," said a neutral Western diplomat in university, are drenched with Sandinista-Marxist indoctrina- Managua who has studied Obando's methods...
...Such a deep division (even from non-Sandinistas) that John Paul II misunderstands between the official and popular church may indeed be due to Latin America, and that he thinks Nicaragua is another Poland...
...Or is he elections...
...before returning to Managua, he celebrated a public Mass in This is hardly to suggest that the study of Marxism in any Miami attended by contra leaders...
...He thinks the Sandinistas are dangerous for churches in Nicaragua...
...There is atheism in the adoration of the of the government," Bishop Vivas said, "- our young people dollar...
...A illicit...
...Father Molina played a major part the church, and must be confronted by a strong leader at the during the Somoza dictatorship in the intellectual formation of top...
...In some aspects John Paul II's social doctrines are progressive, but I can't say he's a C ONTRAST THE comments of the cardinal and his aides with revolutionary, and I'd like him to be...
...Mindszenty failed, and of the Sandinistas...
...I have no problem of conscience over this political munities...
...Cesar Jerez is a good priest and church must be the agent of social change...
...There is no contradiction those of Padre Cesar Jerez, a Guatemalan Jesuit, Rector of between Marx and Christ, because you can be a Marxist and the University of Central America (UCA) in Managua, and not an atheist...
...He was "However, the pope and the bishops don't want us precisely quite stern about that...
...And yet, our students stay faithful to contras atrocities...
...Padre Molina is us, its own members...
...Obando recpathizer - but which I cannot verify - said that the San- ognizes this, and he is resisting in the only way he knows...
...The turbas...
...First, Miguel Cardinal Obando y Bravo, archbishop of All writers have their biases, so let me be honest and admit Managua and head of the Nicaraguan church...
...We are fortunate in that unlike replied: "During all of my priesthood, I never raised problems other dioceses - where all charity and social work has been of doctrine, or of schism from the bishops...
...Yet even EsPadre Molina is officially subordinate to Cardinal Obando, teli, in the northwest of Nicaragua where young Monsenor his bishop, to the Franciscan provincial in Guatemala, and to Ruben Lopez Ardon is bishop, and despite his reputation as the the superior general of the Franciscans in Rome...
...Cuban Catholic church, for reasons stemming from its recent Commonweal: 268...
...Con- a single question: Is he a Glemp, or a Mindszenty...
...The so-called popular church...
...dinista foreign minister spoke of an "excommunication" of Moreover, I am not persuaded by the chronic argument Cardinal Obando by the popular church...
...flock, unable to claim impressive numbers...
...The Sandinistas' repression is aimed at the church people...
...We are a small in order to take part in this historic day for the Cuban church...
...He's suspicious...
...our communications with the American bishops...
...Trained in Rome, he is perhaps the most eloquent of Jesus on instructions from Pope John Paul II, but who priest in Nicaragua...
...This dispute is not doctrinal but practice the philosophy of Marx without being atheist...
...Whatever the merits of guan church from Rome's hands...
...I'm against all evidence (and Nicaraguan priests and parents complain of this violence...
...Everything in the guan church...
...The contra troops, an Office of the archdiocese of Managua...
...Consecrate tortillas or Coca-Cola...
...The cardinal fears that Nicaragua will become Yes, I'm still a priest, but I'm forbidden by Rome to celebrate another Cuba," but the fear is unfounded...
...Somewhere in the middle of this acrimonious ecclesiastical quarrel are those bishops in Nicaragua who are more conciliatory to the Sandinistas than the cardinal, and in whose dioceses - Matagalpa and Esteli, for example - the harassment of the official church is less severe...
...Nevertheless, I Managua, and Monsehor Bismark Carballo, vicar of comarrived in Central America with a deep distaste for the Reagan munications - recite a long and saddening list of increasing administration's military policy toward Nicaragua, and an harassment of the church by the Sandinista government...
...And Bishop Adolfo Rodriguez of Monde, where this report, translated from the French by Edward S. Skillin, first appeared...
...One of our great problems is the government's XXIII, my experience in the third world, and the Medellin indoctrination of the young, all that Marxism against Chrisdeclaration - the church's preferential option for the poor - tianity...
...It's true that in our univer- what I can only call ecclesiastical theater...
...We all respect the Holy Father, but the pope's analysis of olutionary triumphalism - the most famous of the "popular" Nicaragua is bad...
...one of the most sophisticated pro-Sandinistas in the country...
...we lay claim to no other originality than to be totally faithful to the STANISLAS MAILLARD is an editor of L'Actualite Religieuse dans le novelty of the Gospel...
...However, Father Molina told me, "It's false to say that I'm...
...It's a form of persecuEDWARD R F. SHEEHAN, a veteran author on foreign policy and former tion," the cardinal replied, "and the pressures will get Fellow of Harvard's Center for International Affairs, is touring worse...
...of Havana declared, "We are aware of the disparity between Three thousand Catholics were gathered in the cathedral, our own negligibility and the magnitude of the objectives and come at their own expense from different parts of the country, hopes with which the Holy Spirit inspires us...
...in his failure seemed to harm the Hungarian church...
...Commonweal: 266 Padre Westhe Lopez, another priest of Esteli...
...In fact, the popular church an arm of the state...
...I have no probltm taken over by the state - we do retain our orphanages and our with the fundamental doctrines, [for example ] that Jesus work for the rural sick with aid from West Germany and the Christ is the Son of God...
...life of the churches on every continent and their relationships with This is not false modesty or diplomatic words masking an other religions...
...I am a revolutionary...
...I am forbidden to Nicaragua I found the Sandinistas equally repugnant...
...The religious comunidades de base [base com- political...
...Would he sequently, you didn't know if you were talking to a religious serve the church's interest better by avoiding confrontation, by leader or a political leader...
...Though he speaks constantly of national not taught in Nicaraguan secondary schools...
...The gap is suggested by the fact that Cardinal texts and even in mathematics...
...The between the revolution and Christianity...
...I'm a student of the church, of Scripture, Hebrew, revolution, but in the life of Nicaragua there is no contradiction Greek, and theological problems...
...After completing a 200-mile "Way surviving opposition newspaper, and its recent reduction to six of the Cross" in support of Managua's current social policies pages, the suspension of civil liberties last October, and the and its struggle against the contras, D'Escoto described Car- increasing repression of independent trade unions and political dinal Obando as "an accomplice in the assassination of our parties...
...6 months: $24...
...close on Sunday, February 23, with a high Mass celebrated by Skeptics, maintaining that the merely curious constituted Cardinal Eduardo Pironio, special envoy of the pope...
...out the responses of the rosary...
...The 75859 Paris Cedex 17...
...True," I observed, As for the popular church's comunidades de base, even "the cardinal is very shrewd...
...He hinted that, no Calvario - state flatly that the popular church has practically matter what the instructions, he will remain in his parish even no appeal...
...real power is in the hands of the comanpeople prefer the traditional faith...
...M Y OWN CONCLUSION is that despite the doctrinal and litur- My own feeling is that, however imperfect his tactics, gical orthodoxy of the popular church - though Bishop Cardinal Obando essentially has no choice but to battle the Vivas questioned even that, asking "Who knows what they do Sandinistas with every weapon at his command, not least his in these comunidades...
...I message of the Gospel and to monopolize all means of public still oppose the Reagan policy generally, but once inside communication," the cardinal told me...
...called on him to "repent his sins...
...L'Actualite Religieuse, a successor journal to Camaguey, president of the Cuban bishops' council, evoked the widely read Informations Catholique Internationales, covers the what he called "the miracle of empty hands...
...There is no schism in the Nicarastate...
...I recognize his supreme authority in believe in, from the spies and turbas [mobs] of a government matters of doctrine, and accept all dogmas of the church...
...talked in Spanish with It is only (and necessarily) in such a context that I can ordinary clergy and the poorest of the faithful...
...If there is sin in the church, it is this completely controlled by the state...
...True, you can't mix New Testament contains an explicit condemnation of the atheism of Marx with belief in Christ, but the essence of capitalism, he continued, reading from 1 Timothy 6:10 - 9 May 1986: 265 "For the love of money is the root of all evil...
...Bishop Vivas and Monsenor Carballo were even more veCommonweal: 264 hement...
...most of the poor either don't from happening...
...I agree with Gandhi that `Christians don't believe in Christ.' The masses must be leavened, and in some cases Marxists are needed to leaven the masses for social justice...
...absence of dialogue...
...in 1983, and (so it was reported) told him to get out of the Monseilor Carballo added, "You see, we're unfaithful to government or out of the priesthood: "Ours was the first Lenin - and they're Marxists...
...Nor do we, Padre Molina continue to engage in dialogue...
...His Mass is valid but ble and social apostolate now taken over by the state...
...Francis never buildings were occupied by the army until 1984, but we threatened schism from the church...
...The Nicaraguan hierarchy is not monolithic...
...According to most conciliatory of the bishops to the Sandinistas, the church Monsehor Carballo, "Uriel Molina no longer has sacerdotal is confined almost completely to evangelization - its charitafaculties in the archdiocese of Managua...
...political...
...Agustin Toranzo, a Spanish Jesuit in the northern town of A young nun who teaches in one of Esteli's Catholic Ocotal, who remains in good standing with his bishop in the academics for girls told me that - except for a course in Diocese of Esteli...
...I didn't invite them," he told me...
...When I hear them singing, mournfully to the Miguel Obando and John Paul II in so many hovels of the poor, music of organ and trumpets, as though imploring heaven to or the multitudes who flock to the traditional church not for take pity on'their beleaguered church as well as on their own sermons on liberation theology but for the consolation of the suffering, I feel with them, there - not in Uriel Molina's sacraments, the rosary, the chanted litany to the Virgin that Sandinista shrine - the palpable presence of Christ...
...Subscription: $40...
...dantes, and it is their obvious plan to tame the official church...
...Thus we can church, Father Jerez told me...
...The meeting was coming to a of doors by means of powerful loudspeakers...
...Or so the debate goes...
...Some American bishops - in San Antonio and future revolutions where the population is Christian...
Vol. 113 • May 1986 • No. 9
