Bergoglio lifts John Paul’s sanction on unrepentant Communist priest

MANAGUA, February 18, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) -- Without any sign of public repentance on the part of Ernesto Cardenal, Pope Francis has lifted 1984 canonical sanctions imposed by Pope St. John Paul II against the communist Nicaraguan priest. In 1983, Pope John Paul II famously publicly chastised Cardenal because of the latter’s Liberation Theology and  involvement in the leftist revolutionary Sandinista government of Nicaragua which was restricting the Church.

As recently as 2015, Cardenal praised Pope Francis while reviling his predecessors. In an interview with El Pais, Cardinal was elated that Pope Francis is leading a “revolution,” unlike his two “disastrous” predecessors. “The two popes prior to Francis were disastrous popes, who made the church retreat by centuries,” he said.

Cardenal, the scion of a wealthy and politically-connected family, remains unrepentant for his Marxist views.

The 94-year-old Cardenal is being treated in a hospital for renal failure and is reportedly at the point of death. Even before the lifting of the papal sanction, which had prohibited Cardenal from administering the sacraments.

Bishop Silvio José Báez visited the ailing priest and knelt for his blessing at his hospital bed. “I ask for your blessing as a priest of the Catholic Church,” the bishop said. Báez posted on Twitter a photo of himself kneeling beside Cardenal juxtaposed with the famous 1983 image of Pope John Paul II wagging an admonitory finger at the kneeling Cardenal.

The Nicaraguan bishop also posted a tweet showing a copy of the letter from papal nuncio Stanislaw Waldemar Sommertag announcing the change.

Papal Nuncio Sommertag, for his part, has offered to concelebrate a Mass with Cardenal, which will be the first for the leftist priest in 35 years.

The letter from the nuncio read:

"The Holy Father has benevolently granted the absolution of all the canonical censures imposed on the Reverend Father Ernesto Cardenal, accepting the request that he had recently presented to him through the Pontifical Representative in Nicaragua, to be readmitted to the exercise of the priestly ministry.

“Father Cardinal has been 35 years under suspension of the exercise of the ministry due to his political militancy. The cleric accepted the canonical penalty that was imposed on him that he has always followed, without carrying out any pastoral activity. In addition, he had abandoned all political commitments for many years.”

In 1983, Pope John Paul II flew to Nicaragua from Mexico, where he had specifically condemned the so-called Theology of Liberation, which had its roots in Latin America and of which Cardenal was a principal exponent.

When the pope greeted a queue of Sandinista officials, Cardenal genuflected and tried to kiss the papal ring. Pope John Paul pulled his hand away, telling Cardenal “First you must be reconciled with the Church!”

After losing his faculties as a priest, Cardenal continued to serve on dictator Ortega’s cabinet until 1987. Since then, he has been largely occupied as a poet and artist at his commune retreat on the Solentiname Islands in Lake Nicaragua.  

A change in Cardenal’s fortunes came in 2016 during Pope Francis’ visit to Mexico. A Spanish journalist brought a book of the priest’s poems to the Pope. The book had a dedication to the Pope from Cardenal, along with a letter. In the book was included an interview in which Cardenal paid homage to his fellow Latin American. “I feel completely identified with this new Pope. He is better than we could have imagined.”

Once he received the book, the Pope said he would read it. While Cardenal’s health deteriorated, the Pope’s response came on Feb. 14 informing him of the lifting of sanctions.

For Cardenal, the recent controversial statement of Pope Francis pushing religious pluralism would have been a joy. When asked in the 2015 interview if religions were fulfilling their role, Cardenal replied, “No way. They will fulfill it when all religions unite with one another, each one with its believes within a religious pluralism.”

Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich was shown this secular humanism which would disguise itself as Christianity:

"...this church was born without a Saviour, good works without faith, the communion of the unbelieving with the appearance but not the reality of virtue; in a word, the anti-Church whose centre is malice, error, falsehood, hypocrisy, tepidity, and the cunning of all the demons of the period... Its mysteries are to have no mysteries and, consequently, its action is temporal, finite, full of pride and presumption, a teacher of evil clothed in specious raiment."

Ernesto Cardenal: «¡Eso es falso, solo fue así en el caso de Miguel D'Escoto! Nunca me levantaron la suspensión sacerdotal y no me interesa que me la levanten»,

El 19 de enero de 2017, entrevistado por el periodista argentino Enrique Vázquez, Ernesto Cardenal afirmó que solo Miguel D'Escoto recibió el levantamiento de la suspensión impuesta en 1984 y que él no quería recibir esa gracia.

The apostate Bergoglio said that he 'concelebrated' with the Marxist Gustavo Gutierrez

Bergoglio accuses the political prisoners who fought against Communism with crimes of Lesa Humanity and defends Marxist terrorists.

Proverbs 17:15

He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, both are abominable before God.

Pope Pius XI– The Communist system, with its authors and abettors condemned
-Communism is intrinsically wrong and no one may collaborate with it in any undertaking whatsoever
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith– Formal prohibition to join or favor Communist Parties – latae sententiae excommunication
Pope John XXIII– No Catholic can subscribe even to moderate Socialism – opposition between Communism and Christianity is fundamental.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

• Formal prohibition to join or favor Communist Parties – latae sententiaeexcommunication

Questions:
1. Whether it is lawful to join Communist Parties or to favour them;
2. whether it is lawful to publish, disseminate, or read books, periodicals, newspapers or leaflets which support the teaching or action of Communists, or to write in them;
3. whether the faithful who knowingly and freely perform the acts specified in questions 1 and 2 may be admitted to the Sacraments;
4. whether the faithful who profess the materialistic and anti-Christian doctrine of the Communists, and particularly those who defend or propagate this doctrine, contract ipso facto excommunication specially reserved to the Apostolic See as apostates from the Catholic faith.

The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Fathers entrusted with the supervision of matters concerning the safeguarding of Faith and morals, having previously heard the opinion of the Reverend Lords Consultors, decreed in the plenary session held on Tuesday (instead of Wednesday), June 28, 1949, that the answers should be as follows:
To 1. in the negative: because Communism is materialistic and anti-Christian; and the leaders of the Communists, although they sometimes profess in words that they do not oppose religion, do in fact show themselves, both in their teaching and in their actions, to be the enemies of God, of the true religion and of the Church of Christ;
to 2. in the negative: they are prohibited ipso iure (cf. Can. 1399 of the Codex Iuris Canonici);
to 3. in the negative, in accordance with the ordinary principles concerning the refusal of the Sacraments to those who are not disposed;
to 4. in the affirmative. (Replies confirmed by Pius XII on June 30) (Denzinger-Hünermann 3865. Decree of the Holy Office, July 1, 1949)