Nicaragua Bishop Directly Criticizes Sandinistas

At an open-air Mass that capped a tumultuous homecoming, Nicaragua’s newly consecrated Roman Catholic cardinal called Saturday for peace, and one of his top bishops directly criticized the policies of the Sandinista government.

The low-key service contrasted with a Friday night parade, welcoming Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo home from the Vatican. That was marked by unusual public displays of anti-Sandinista sentiment and some violence.

On Friday, spectators trying to break into the airport terminal where only church officials and government authorities were allowed to meet Obando were fought off by police using water hoses and truncheons. The spectators retaliated by stoning and injuring several policemen and smashing the window of at one police car.

In a speech Saturday, Interior Minister Tomas Borge blamed the flare-up on political agitators working in the service of the United States and said a repeat of such violence would not be tolerated. He said that the police were ordered to remain passive but that they would not do so in the future. “Don’t think this is going to be the routine,” he said.

At the start of Saturday’s Mass to celebrate his elevation to cardinal, Obando, said: “We pray for the reconciliation of all Nicaraguans. The Pope has given me the task of seeking peace and stability in Central America.”

In introductory remarks, Msgr. Pablo Vega, head of the Nicaraguan Bishops Conference and a top church strategist, criticized the Sandinistas’ Marxist tilt, decrying the imposition of foreign ideologies on Nicaragua “without respect for the sovereignty of the people.”

“Some speak of workers and peasants, yet mean to deny them social rights and subject them to holders of privilege and to exploit them,” he said. He mentioned the days when native population was enslaved by Spanish colonists and said, “It seems that we have not advanced much from that epoch.”