Pope reinstates Sandanista priest

[Judi Lynn]

Pope reinstates Sandanista priest

Miguel d'Escoto served as president of UN general assembly

Redazione ANSA
Vatican City

04 August 2014
15:53

(ANSA) - Vatican City, August 4 - Pope Francis has reinstated a South American priest who had been penalized in the 1980s for his political activities, including involvement with the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua.


Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockman, 81, had been suspended in by then-pope John Paul II.

Among other activities, d'Escoto had publicly expressed his support for the Sandinista National Liberation Front and, after the Sandinistas took office in 1979, d'Escoto became minister for foreign affairs until 1990 under Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega.

After the defeat of the Sandinistas in the 1990 elections, d'Escoto continued to be active politically and in June 2008 was elected president of the United Nations General Assembly.

According to his UN biography, d'Escoto was born in Los Angeles in 1933 and spent his childhood years in Nicaragua, before returning to the United States in 1947 to study.

He entered the Catholic seminary at Maryknoll in New York state in 1953, and in 1961 was ordained a priest. http://popefrancisnewsapp.com/

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/vatican/2014/08/04/pope-reinstates-nicaraguan-priest_80100ea1-a0af-4354-b6d5-c93935d8c0c4.html

(Short article, no more at link.)

[Judi Lynn]

1. Francis reverses John Paul II, reinstates priest suspended in '80s for joining Sandinista govt

Francis reverses John Paul II, reinstates priest suspended in '80s for joining Sandinista govt
By Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press August 4, 2014 1:54 PM

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has reinstated a Nicaraguan priest suspended by the Vatican in the 1980s for participating in Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government.

The 81-year-old Rev. Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, Nicaragua's foreign minister from 1979-1990, recently wrote to Francis asking to be allowed to celebrate Mass again before he died. The Vatican said Monday that Francis had agreed and asked D'Escoto's superior in the Maryknoll order to help reintroduce him into priestly ministry.

The Vatican suspended D'Escoto and three other dissident priests in 1985 for defying a church ban on clergy holding government jobs. The sanction was also a reflection of St. John Paul II's broader crackdown on liberation theology in Latin America.

The Sandinistas, who supported the "popular church" of liberation theology, overthrew the pro-American regime of Anastasio Somoza in 1979.

Francis, who was a young Jesuit provincial in Argentina at the time, shared John Paul's opposition to the perceived Marxist excesses of liberation theology. But as pope, he has also called for a more merciful church and has indicated that another symbol of liberation theology, slain Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, will soon be beatified.

More:
http://www.canada.com/life/Francis+reverses+John+Paul+reinstates+priest+suspended+joining/10088532/story.html

[jwirr]

2. I think it is very rare that a pope would reverse much of what a former pope did. Wow.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Exactly! It almost seems he's exonerating a "leftist", too, heaven forbid! n/t

[jwirr]

4. This pope could turn out to be the best they have ever had. I like him.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Pope reinstates revolutionary priest from Nicaragua's Sandinistas

Pope reinstates revolutionary priest from Nicaragua's Sandinistas

Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann was banned from ministries in 1985 as part of crackdown on 'Marxist thought' in Catholic church

John Hooper in Rome
The Guardian, Tuesday 5 August 2014 12.26 EDT

Pope Francis faces the wrath of rightwing conservatives by reinstating a priest who joined the revolutionary, leftwing government of Nicaragua's Sandinistas and once served as president of the UN general assembly.

Pope John Paul II suspended Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann from his ministry in 1985, as part of a broader crackdown on adherents of liberation theology – a school of thought he criticised for importing Marxist values into the church. The edict meant D'Escoto was, among other things, forbidden to say Mass.

A brief statement from the Maryknoll religious order, to which the 81-year-old priest belongs, announced that Francis had lifted the suspension on 1 August. "I am happy to be able to celebrate mass again," D'Escoto was reported as saying from the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. "I am really pleased."

A few months ago, he wrote to the pope asking to "be able to celebrate the Holy Eucharist before dying". Bishop Enrico dal Covolo, rector of the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, told the Italian daily La Stampa that Francis's response did not represent the adoption of a political stance and should be understood in the context of his emphasis on the importance of mercy.

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/pope-priest-sandinista-nicaragua-revolutionary