Fernando Cardenal

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fernando Cardenal (2009)

Fernando Cardenal Martínez (born January 26, 1934 in Granada , Nicaragua , † February 20, 2016 in Managua ) was a Nicaraguan Jesuit and liberation theologian .

Life

Fernando Cardenal was a brother of Ernesto Cardenal and a cousin of Pedro Chamorros . At the end of the retreat he was doing at the age of 17, he decided to join the Jesuits. This happened the following year, 1952. This was followed by the stages of long Jesuit training in Nicaragua, Guatemala , Mexico and Colombia , with shorter assignments in El Salvador , Ecuador and Peru : novitiate , three courses (social sciences, philosophy and theology), teaching activity a religious school and pastoral work. In 1965 he was ordained a priest.

Cardenal grew up in a wealthy family. His nine-month tertiary degree at the end of his training in 1969/1970 in the Pablo VI poor district of Medellín was an encounter with an “other world” and a decisive experience. He swore to the local community and himself to give his life to the poor. He continued working for the poor after returning home. From August 1970 he worked again in Managua, from 1971 at the Colegio Central América , the Jesuit high school in Managua, and in the parish of Santo Domingo in Managua. For a short time he was Vice Rector of the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), where he experienced the repression and brutality of the National Guard against "rebellious students". He supported the students in demonstrations against the Somoza dictatorship , hunger strikes and vigils in churches. This displeased his superior , who dismissed him from his position as vice rector. In 1973 Fernando Cardenal took his last religious vows after the 30-day Ignatian retreat .

Under the influence of his experience at the UCA, Cardenal came to the conviction that it was his duty as a Christian to resist the Somoza dictatorship and the exploitation of the poor by the ruling elites. With the Franciscan Uriel Molina and students of the UCA he founded the Movimento Cristiano Revolucionario (MRC), the Christian Revolutionary Movement , in 1973 . The MCR worked with the Sandinista , but remained independent.

After the Sandinista victorious in 1979 in the civil war , they commissioned Fernando Cardenal to lead the crusade to overcome illiteracy ( Cruzada Nacional de Alfabetización ). From 1984 to 1990 Fernando Cardenal was Minister of Education.

Fernando Cardenal was suspended from his spiritual offices ("a divinis") in February 1984 because of the violation of canon law by assuming a political office . On December 10th of the same year he was expelled from the Jesuit order. Cardenal immediately responded to this decision with a small script translated into many languages: Carta a mis amigos (letter to my friends). In it he stated that - according to his understanding of the Gospel - following Jesus on the one hand and serving in a revolution with and for the poor on the other hand are not mutually exclusive.

Fernando Cardenal was upset and outraged that the Sandinista movement was turning into a kleptocracy . He protested against this (in vain) to Daniel Ortega . Since the mid-1990s, Fernando Cardenal, like his brother Ernesto, denounced Ortega's despotic behavior and - as the Cardenal brothers felt - his betrayal of the Sandinista revolution.

In 1997, Fernando Cardenal was re-accepted into the Jesuit order and his suspension as a priest lifted - two steps that meant a lot to him. In the last decades of his life he headed the national association of Nicaragua of the Latin American network of Catholic schools "Fe y Alegría".

Honors

On August 29, 1980, UNESCO awarded the Cruzada Nacional de Alfabetización the Nadezhda K. Krupskaya literacy prize for that year.

Fonts

  • Carta a mis amigos . Managua, December 1984 and other editions.
  • Raised fist - the book opened. The literacy crusade . In: Otker Bujard, Ulrich Wirper (ed.): The revolution is a book and a free person. The political posters of liberated Nicaragua 1979–1990 and the international solidarity movement . PapyRossa, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-89438-373-2 , p. 109 ff.
  • Sacerdote en la revolución. Memorias . Anamá Ediciones, Managua 2008, two volumes, ISBN 978-99924-7510-2 (volume 1) and ISBN 978-99924-7511-9 (volume 2).

literature

  • Fernando Cardenal: “I will always be a priest. Until my death I am united to my people. ” In: Teófilo Cabestrero (Ed.): Priests for Peace and Revolution. Ernesto Cardenal - Miguel d'Escoto - Fernando Cardenal . Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal, 2., ext. 1985 edition, ISBN 3-87294-219-0 , pp. 51-90.

Web links

Commons : Fernando Cardenal  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Manzar Foroohar: The Catholic Church and social change in Nicaragua . State University of New York Press, Albany 1989, ISBN 0-88706-864-2 , pp. 225-226.
  2. ↑ a b Fernando Cardenal, un testamento de vida . In: Revista Suma Qamaña , Bogotá, vol. 1 (2016), issue 2 (febrero-marzo).
  3. ↑ Fernando Cardenal: Sacerdote en la revolución. Memorias . Anamá Ediciones, Managua 2008, Vol. 1, pp. 28-64.
  4. ↑ Daniel Balderston, Mike Gonzalez, Ana M. López (eds.): Encyclopedia of contemporary Latin American and Caribbean cultures : Vol. 2 E - N . Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 0-415-22972-3 , p. 985.
  5. ↑ Michael Löwy : The war of gods. Religion and politics in Latin America . Verso, London 1996, ISBN 1-85984-907-5 , p. 96.
  6. ↑ Miguel Bayon Pereda: "Un niño sin escuela es una bomba de relojería" - Entrevista con Fernando Cardenal . In: El País , December 1, 2003.
  7. ↑ Dos modelos de Iglesia (agosto 84 - julio 85) . In: Revista Envio , No. 50, August 1985.
  8. ↑ La Decisión del P. Fernando Cardenal . In: Revista Envio , No. 43, January 1985.
  9. ↑ Fernando Cardenal: No crean las calumnias sobre Nicaragua. Carta a mis amigos . In: Cuadernos americanos . Vol. 44 (1985), No. 259, pp. 23-39.
  10. ^ Mónica Baltodano: Ser cristianos y revolucionarios. Fernando Cardenal y José Miguel Torres , June 12, 1999, accessed July 3, 2020.
  11. ^ Deutsche Welle : Muere el educador popular Fernando Cardenal , February 20, 2016, accessed on July 3, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Cardenal, Fernando
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cardenal Martínez, Fernando (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nicaraguan Jesuit and liberation theologian
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Granada , Nicaragua
DATE OF DEATH 20th February 2016
Place of death Managua , Nicaragua