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Pope Francis has lifted sanctions imposed on Fr Ernesto Cardenal of Nicaragua in 1984.
On Monday, Archbishop Waldemar Sommertag, the Vatican nuncio in Nicaragua, said Pope Francis had “granted with benevolence the absolution of all canonical censures” imposed on Cardenal.
Cardenal (94) was suspended from his priestly ministry and duties by St John Paul II because of his militancy and for being a minister in Daniel Ortega’s government. St John Paul II suspended Cardenal “a divinis“.
Cardenal, who is a poet and Marxist liberation theology activist, actively collaborated with the Sandinista National Liberation Front revolution that ended the dictatorship of then-president Anastasio Somoza.
He was appointed Minister of Culture the same day the Sandinistas were victorious on July 19, 1979. He held the office until 1987.
However, the Code of Canon Law (No. 285) prohibits priests from holding partisan political offices.
After repeated attempts by the Vatican and their religious orders to convince Cardenal and three conferes to resign their positions in the Sandinista government, Father Miguel D’Escoto, Cardenal and his brother Father Fernando Cardenal, who was the education minister, were suspended.
A fourth priest, Father Edgar Parrales, who was ambassador to the Organization of American States, requested laicisation.
In January 2017 Cardenal was interviewed about his suspension.
At the time, he confirmed his suspension was still in place. He said he was “not interested in their [the Vatican] lifting it.”
However, the statement announcing the lifting of Cardenal’s suspension references a request made by Cardenal to Pope Francis, which suggests Cardenal may have changed his mind about having not been interested in having the sanctions removed.
Auxiliary Bishop Silvio Báez posted a photograph of the visit he made with Cardenal in the hospital last friday on Twitter. In the accompanying tweet he said:
“Today I visited in the hospital my priest friend, Fr. Ernesto Cardenal, with whom I spoke for a few minutes. After praying for him, I knelt down beside his bed and asked for his blessing as a priest of the Catholic Church, to which he agreed joyfully.”
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