Word: sandinistas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...pastor concerned with the spiritual welfare of the faithful, the Pope had also come to reprove and correct the wayward. He had harsh words for Christians in Nicaragua who have tried to forge a new church compatible with the aims of the avowedly Marxist Sandinista government and rebuked clergy who have neglected their priestly office to serve the state. Angered that no cross was placed at the site of an outdoor Mass in Managua, he deliberately held his own staff, tipped with a cross, high above the heads of Sandinista leaders seated on the platform. As John Paul delivered...
...gleaned hints of the difficulties he would face the next day in Nicaragua, where both the church and its followers are deeply divided over the policies of a revolutionary government. A group of 300 Nicaraguan exiles kept a silent vigil on a grassy knoll, holding up banners denouncing the Sandinista regime. Said one: IN NICARAGUA RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION EXISTS! Another, referring to harassment of early Christians in Rome, read: NO CATACOMBS IN NICARAGUA! Though Nicaragua's Catholic leaders supported the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship, moderate clerics have now grown wary of Sandinista-supported efforts to meld Christianity with Marxist ideology...
Even the last-minute preparations for the Pope's arrival in Nicaragua turned into a political tug-of-war between church hierarchy and state. Managua's Archbishop Miguel Obando y Brando, an outspoken critic of the regime, complained that the Sandinista government's plans to use publicly-owned transportation to shuttle Nicaraguans to sites along the papal route were an attempt to control who would be able to see John Paul. Some parish priests urged the faithful to ignore government timetables determining when they could leave for the Mass and instead to form their own religious processions...
...Sandinista officials dismissed the complaints, pointing out that the plans to "mobilize" the country's Christians had been worked out in joint committees that included local bishops and Sandinista leaders. There were other signs on the eve of the Pope's arrival that the government felt it could only benefit from a successful visit. State-controlled television provided full and uncensored coverage of John Paul's stay in Costa Rica. Workers were given an extended weekend to give them time to see the Pope. Even the Sandinista workers' headquarters in downtown Managua was draped with a red-and-black banner...
...split is mirrored by a similar division among the faithful. The Sandinistas draw Catholic support from "base communities," church-sponsored discussion groups that emphasize political consciousness-raising, as well as Christian student university groups and those intellectuals who espouse liberation theology. In reaction, the bishops have created their own network of "City of God" clubs. There is even an anti-Sandinista Virgin. Townspeople in Cuapa say that in 1980 Mary appeared to a villager to show her displeasure with the regime and to ask for prayers for the Archbishop...