A Letter to My Friends

Abstract

Nicaragua is the only country in the world with three Catholic priests occupying ministerial posts. Ernesto Cardenal, the poet, is Minister of Culture; his brother, Fernando, is Education Minister; and Miguel D'Escoto is Foreign Minister. The fact that they are participating in the Sandinista government, which in November 1984 won over 65% of the vote in the first election since the revolution of 1979, has brought the three into conflict with the Catholic Church hierarchy in both Nicaragua and the Vatican. The conflict came to a head at the end of 1984, when the priests were called upon to choose between what the Church authorities defined as their religious vocation, or continuing to work in the Nicaraguan government. This was justified under a new Canon Law No. 285 adopted in November 1983, which explicitly stated that priests could not carry out: ‘Public posts that entail the exercise of civil authority’. The three ministers all chose to remain in their ministerial posts, and were expelled or suspended from their orders. In his Letter to My Friends, an abbreviated version of which follows, Fernando Cardenal, who has been Education Minister since July 1984; explains why he considers his expulsion from the Jesuit order to be inspired more by political than religious concerns, and justifies his wish to continue working in the government. The issue raised within the Catholic Church goes beyond the fate of these three priests, however, and should be seen in the context of Pope John Paul II's attempts to control the ‘theology of liberation’ movement which has made such an impact in Latin America. (See Peter Hebblethwaite, ‘Liberation and John Paul II’, Index on Censorship, 5/83). The Pope seems determined to return the Church to a conservative interpretation of its duties towards the poor, staying away from any identification with them in any particular historical situation, whereas Father Cardenal feels that the Church must engage in the struggle on behalf of the poor whenever and wherever it can. As Leonardo Boff, another ‘liberation theorist’, put it: ‘A Church for the poor is not enough; it is imperative that it be a Church with the poor, until it becomes the Church of the poor’.