Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan poet–priest, restored in Catholic Church
Cardenal was suspended for his role in the 1980s Sandinista government—considered a partisan public office prohibited for clergy.
Ernesto Cardenal in Munich in 2010. Public domain photo by Herbert Erwin.
Ernesto Cardenal, a Nobel Prize–nominated Nicaraguan poet, priest, and former government official, was restored to exercising his ministry by Pope Francis on February 17.
Pope John Paul II had suspended him in 1984 “because of his political militancy and for joining the Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega as Minister of Culture,” Vatican News wrote. Canon law forbids clerics from holding partisan public office.
In lifting the suspension, Vatican officials wrote that Cardenal has abided by the sanctions against “carrying out any pastoral activity.” They also noted that Cardenal had been a leader of efforts in the 1980s that taught 500,000 Nicaraguans to read and write.
