Pope Francis "rehabilitated" the Marxist poet and former priest Ernesto Cardenal, 94, who is presently hospitalized in precarious health conditions.
The Nicaraguan nuncio "offered" Cardenal to co-preside his first Eucharist after more than three decades. In the past, Cardenal had declared he was not interested in having the sanctions against him removed.
He left his priestly ministry in 1979 to become a minster of the Communist government of Nicaraguan which in the same year had ousted the dictator Anastasio Somoza who was backed by the U.S. and their pupped regimes.
Born in a famous, upper-class family, Cardenal was known for exploiting the farmers when he was a landlord in his Solentiname community.
John Paul II defrocked him in 1985, and Cardenal never attempted a reconciliation.
Cardenal is considered among the most important poets in Latin America. He always was well received among the rich and powerful of this world.
Picture: Ernesto Cardenal, © Abril Cabrera, CC BY-SA, #…More