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Ernesto Cardenal Martínez (20 January 1925 – 1 March 2020) was a Nicaraguan Roman Catholic priest, poet, and politician. He was a liberation theologian and the founder of the primitivist art community in the Solentiname Islands, where he lived for more than ten years (1965–1977). A former member of the , he was Nicaragua's minister of culture from 1979 to 1987. He was prohibited from administering the sacraments in 1984 by Pope John Paul II, but rehabilitated by Pope Francis in 2019.
In July 1950, he returned to Nicaragua, where he participated in the 1954 April Revolution against Anastasio Somoza García's regime. The coup d'état failed and ended with the deaths of many of his associates. After a deep mystical experience that Cardenal had on June 2, 1956, in 1957 he entered the Trappist Monastery of Gethsemani (Kentucky, United States), joining another poet-priest, Thomas Merton, who was the master of novices; but in 1959, he left to study theology in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Cardenal was a believer in Christian communism saying "Christ led me to Marx...for me, the four Gospels are all equally Communist. I’m a Marxist who believes in God, follows Christ and is a revolutionary for his Kingdom".Novak, Michael. 1984. The Case against Liberation Theology. The New York Times, October 21, Section 6. 51. He later said "The Bible is full of revolutions. The prophets are people with a message of revolution. Jesus of Nazareth takes the revolutionary message of the prophets. And we also will continue trying to change the world and make revolution. Those revolutions failed, but others will come".
On 19 July 1979, immediately after the Liberation of Managua, he was named Minister of Culture by the new Sandinista government. He campaigned for a "revolution without vengeance." "Revolution ohne Rache" in: Ernesto Cardenal 80. In: Berliner Morgenpost, 10 June 2008. Retrieved, 23 January 2013. His brother Fernando Cardenal, also a Catholic priest (in the Jesuit order), was appointed Minister of Education. When Pope John Paul II visited Nicaragua in 1983, he openly scolded Ernesto Cardenal, who knelt before him on the Managua airport runway, for resisting his order to resign from the government, and admonished him: "Usted tiene que arreglar sus asuntos con la Iglesia" ("You must fix your affairs with the Church"). On 4 February 1984 Pope John Paul II suspended Cardenal a divinis because of Cardenal's refusal to leave his political office. This suspension remained in effect until it was lifted by Pope Francis in 2019. Cardenal remained Minister of Culture until 1987, when his ministry was closed for economic reasons.
He was also a member of the board of advisers of the television station teleSUR.
Cardenal was a polemical figure in Nicaragua's literary and cultural history. He has been described as "the most important poet right now in Latin America" politically and poetically. He was a vocal representative for Nicaragua and a key to understanding the contemporary literary and cultural life of Nicaragua. He participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions project in 2007. During a short visit to India, he made a profound impression on a group of writers called the Hungry Generation.
Cardenal's tour of the United States in 2011 to promote his newest work stirred up some controversy, as with the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property that protested his appearances at Catholic schools such as Xavier University in Cincinnati, because of his Marxist ideology.
On 18 February 2019, Archbishop Waldemar Sommertag, the Vatican nuncio in Nicaragua, announced that Pope Francis had ended Cardenal's suspension and that Cardenal was "granted with benevolence the absolution of all canonical censures". His return to ministry was also confirmed by Managua Auxiliary Bishop Silvio Báez, who stated “I visited my friend priest, Father Ernesto Cardenal, in the hospital, with whom I could talk for a few minutes. After praying for him, I knelt in his bed and asked for his blessing as a priest of the Catholic Church, to which he agreed joyfully. Thank you, Ernesto! ”
On 1 March 2020, Cardenal died due to complications from ongoing heart and kidney problems. His funeral was held in the Managua Cathedral on March 3, 2020, and was disrupted by at least 100 pro-Ortega protestors who shouted "viva Daniel" and "traitor" at his Nicaraguan flag-draped casket. To avoid further harassment, Cardenal's burial was held in secret. At his request, Cardenal's remains were cremated and then buried in the community he founded on the Solentiname Islands.
Poetry
Earlier works were focused on life and love; however, some works like "Zero Hour" had a direct correlation to his Marxist political ideas, being tied to the assassination of guerrilla leader Augusto César Sandino. Cardenal's poetry was also heavily influenced by his unique Catholic ideology, mainly liberation theology. Some of his later works are heavily influenced by his understanding of science and evolution, though they are still in dialogue with his earlier Marxist and Catholic beliefs. Cardenal sums up his later material in a PBS NewsHour interview:
Honours
Bibliography
Books in English
Poetry
External links
Categories: 1925 Births, 2020 Deaths, People From Granada, Nicaragua, Anti-poverty Advocates, 20th-century Nicaraguan Poets, Nicaraguan Male Poets, Liberation Theologians, Nicaraguan Roman Catholic Priests, Nicaraguan Christian Socialists, Dissident Roman Catholic Theologians, Christian Peace Conference Members, Catholic Poets, Culture Ministers Of Nicaragua, Culture Of Nicaragua, Sandinista National Liberation Front Politicians, Sandinista Renovation Movement Politicians, Nicaraguan Translators, People Of The Nicaraguan Revolution, 20th-century Nicaraguan Sculptors, 20th-century Male Artists, Male Sculptors, 20th-century Translators, Catholic Socialists, Christian Socialist Theologians, 20th-century Nicaraguan Male Writers, People Educated At Colegio Centro América, Deaths From Kidney Disease, Poet Priests, Roman Catholic Writers
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