Orbis Books (New York 2015). Pbk. 254 pages. £19.99.
In 1985, at the height of the Thatcher government the then Solicitor General, Nicholas Fairbairn reiterated the old chestnut that the Church should leave alone what is material, political and confine itself solely to the spiritual sphere. However, during the same period, in Latin America, the most publicised aspect of Catholicism was liberation theology which sought to transform Catholic activism into a radical political force operating from ‘base communities’ and advocating, in some cases, the need for violence to overthrow oppressive governments. And from Nicaragua came the story of four Catholic priests who held ministerial office in the Sandinista government and refused to obey orders from their bishops to return to their pastoral duties.
One of these priests was a Jesuit, Fr Fernando Cardenal, who began his political career in the Sandinista National Liberation Front’s (FSLN’s) national literacy crusade, eventually rising to become the Minister of Education. He was expelled from the Society of Jesus but when he later broke with the Sandinistas he was reinstated. This book is his story of those years.
The background to the rise of the FSLN Government, the participation of several priests, including Fernando’s brother Ernesto, and the largely disastrous interventions by both the USA-funded contras and Pope John Paul II is told in an illuminating preface written by Fr Peter Marchetti SJ, a US Jesuit who was invited by the FSLN to help with land reform. Then Fr Cardenal tells of his journey, from the rarefied air of the Jesuits’ tertianship, where the young student priests lived among, but had no contact with, the people of the country, to his inspiration by the ‘preferential option for the poor’. Meanwhile the FSLN rose to power after an earthquake almost destroyed the capital city Managua in 1972. The Somoza dictatorship appropriated to private accounts the aid sent to rebuild the city whilst the youth joined the Sandinistas and called for revolution. The FSLN took power in July 1979 after Somoza was overthrown and fled, and won elections held in 1984. These bare facts are filled out in great detail in Fr Cardenal’s memoir – the fear, the hiding, the political machinations as the Somoza dynasty began to realise the game was up for them. It was a time of near-chaos and great danger for anyone who openly supported the FSLN.
Once in power, the new government was determined to end the very low level of literacy in Nicaragua and embarked on a nationwide literacy campaign. It was here that Fr Cardenal became involved and from early in 1980 a huge task force was sent into the countryside to teach the people to read and write. It proved a great success – the literacy rate in Nicaragua rose from around 20% to over 70%. Fr Cardenal was given the post of Minister of Education.
But there were dark clouds on the horizon. The revolutionary government, initially supported by President Jimmy Carter, was regarded askance both by the Reagan administration in the USA and the new Pope, John Paul II. The US illegally funded an alliance of rebels (the contras) to overthrow the FSLN, while the Catholic Church made strong protests about the presence of serving priests in the regime. To his great dismay, Fr Cardenal was expelled from the Society of Jesus but in 1995 he broke with the Sandinistas because of what he saw as the corruption of some of the party leaders. Eventually, in 2004 he was reinstated into the Jesuits and continued his work promoting literacy and education under the aegis of a movement called Fe y Alegría (Faith and Joy). Hence the title of the book.
This moving story also underlines questions about faith and politics. The flaw in an interpretation of the bible from a left-wing point of view is that it is equally possible to interpret it from a right-wing point of view as well. Moreover, nothing in the modern history of the church inclines you to trust the judgement of the priest in politics. Politics is a place to look for common action, revolution, utopias and police states. But it does not solve religious questions. Mr Fairbairn’s principle has still not been resolved.
Michael Morton is the parish priest of St Winefride’s Catholic Church, Sandbach, Cheshire.
Fernando Cardenal died on February 20th 2016.