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| Fernando Cardenal SJ (in civilian clothes first from the left) with FSLN Commander Daniel Ortega |
(Managua) He was a Minister Sandinista government. Under Pope John Paul II. he was suspended a divinis and expelled from the Jesuits. He was later reinstated into the order. He was not only a theoretical, but also a practical representative of Marxist liberation theology.
Now he has died at the age of 82 years and stands before the judgment seat of God. There is talk of Fernando Cardenal, the younger brother of Ernesto Cardenal. Both entered the Society of Jesus, were both politically active before their entry into the order, both were Catholic priests, they were both militant representatives of Marxist liberation theology and both were Ministers of the revolutionary Sandinista government that ruled Nicaragua from 1979-1990. With the collapse of the communist bloc, the Sandinista regime collapsed. Concealed, like some communist parties of Europe, the Sandinista Liberation Front FSLN today belongs to the Socialist International and is a sister party of the SPD, Social Democratic Party and SPS.
Revolutionary from a wealthy family
Fernando Cardenal was born in 1934 in Granada, Nicaragua, the son of a wealthy Spanish-born family. Together with his brother, Ernesto, he joined himself early to the Nicaraguan opposition and Marxist liberation theology. The brothers Cardenal became its most important practical representatives and participated in the armed struggle of the Sandinista underground FSLN (Sandinista Front of National Liberation) that fought against the Somoza government.
After the Sandinistas had violently overthrown the government in 1979, the brothers Cardenal took over leading tasks in the revolutionary government, which enjoyed great sympathy and support from the orthodox and unorthodox Left of Europe. Fernando was deputy chairman of the Sandinista Youth League.
The Brothers Cardenal as Ministers: suspension a divinis
Because of his disobedience, and because he had joined the armed struggle, he was suspended a divinis in Rome. Thus, he could no longer present himself as belonging to the Jesuit Order. The Order excludes a direct exercise of public office. So it had to meet the Roman demands and exclude Cardenal. However, the relationship between the brothers Cardenal and the Order remained benevolent.
The return to the Jesuit Order
In 1990 Sandinistas were voted out. After another six years, Fernando Cardenal was re-adopted by the Jesuit Order. After that, he had to repeat the novitiate for a year that he, so the biography went, spent his time "among the poorest of El Salvador", when he was admitted in 1997 back in full into the Order.
Since 2011, he headed has directed one of the order's own initiatives in Nicaragua. It was founded in 1955 by the Chilean Jesuit José Maria Velaz (1910 to 1985) in Venezuela. The movement is called Alegria y Fe. "Faith and Joy" is engaged, at least according to it's own report in "literacy" and "social and political awareness".
In the 1970s, Alegria y Fe became ideological and made liberation theology its own. The 1974 movement was also active in Nicaragua. It maintains more than 1,000 schools and 53 radio stations in Latin America today.
On February 20, Fernando Cardenal died. Yesterday, in the ballroom of the Jesuit- led Central American University in Managua (Universidad Centroamericana, UCA), the Requiem took place . This was followed by burial.
Unlike his brother Ernesto, who opposed the social democratization of the FSLN resisted and the more radical, co-founded Movimento de Ronovacion Sandanista, the Movement of Sandinista Renovation (MRS), Fernando has not been politically active recently.
"May the Lord greet him with infinite mercy," said the Spanish columnist and opponent of liberation theology, Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: La Republica (Ecuador) (screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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