Nicaraguan Govt priests face suspension

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 8

Nicaraguan Govt priests face suspension

NZPA-AP Managua Nicaragua’s Catholic bishops, increasingly at odds with the country’s Leftist leaders, are preparing to suspend four priests who hold top Government positions. The Sandinist Government reacted strongly last week to a call by the bishops for negotations with United States-supported rebel groups. The reaction ranged from ridicule in the Government controlled news media to accusations of treason against the Most Rev. Miguel Obando y Bravo, Archbishop of Managua.

Archbishop Obando y

Bravo has become a symbol of opposition to the Government in a country where an estimated 90 per cent of the population of nearly 3 million is Catholic. Tension has increased to the point where the archbishop’s office says that it is holding the Government news media accountable for his safety. A statement issued at the week-end accused the news media of conducting a propaganda campaign against Archbishop Obando y Bravo. Newspapers published photos of him with the late Anastasio Somoza, the Rightist strongman overthrown by the Sandinista in

1977. The archbiship’s defenders called it an attempt to discredit him.

“But they neglect to mention that it was a personal call from Monsignor Obando y Bravo that saved the life of Tomas Borge (now Interior Minister) when he was a prisoner,” said the Rev. Bismarck Carballo, spokesman for the Managua Archdiocese. Two of the four priests who hold Government posts in defiance of Pope John Paul’s order are the Foreign Minister, the Rev. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann; and the Minister of Culture, the Rev. Ernesto Cardenal Martinez.