Managua, Nicaragua, Jul 19, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Nicaragua's former Marxist President Daniel Ortega and Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo prayed together for reconciliation on Monday evening, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution.
Cardinal Obando, once the fiercest critic of the Sandinista government, celebrated a mass for “reconciliation and peace,” as well as “ for the eternal rest” of the some 30,000 Nicaraguans that lost their lives during the revolution and the ensuing uprising of the U.S.-backed “Contra” rebels.
“It takes courage to ask for forgiveness,” said Cardinal Obando at the Mass celebrated at Managua’s new Cathedral, in reference to Ortega’s recent request to Catholic leaders to forgive his government’s errors and “mistakes against the Church.”
During the homily, Cardinal Obando also prayed that “this episode of violence may never happen again in our nation.”
Ortega, who lost power in the 1990 elections and has failed to be elected president three consecutive times, attended the Mass with his family and did one of the readings. “This has been one of the most beautiful, profound messages we have heard,” he said later of Obando's homily.
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