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NICARAGUA: CHURCH-STATE SCHISM DEVELOPS OVER ANTI-CORRUPTION CAMPAIGN.

Article Excerpt
By Velia Jaramillo

[The author is a staff writer for Inforpress Centroamericana, published in Guatemala.]

In Nicaragua, Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo and the Catholic Church are living turbulent times. On the heels of a regime in which political and economic favors were traded freely, the new administration of President Enrique Bolanos has taken steps that have alienated the church. The government has recently reduced church subsidies and begun an aggressive anti-corruption campaign that has implicated a number of bishops in irregularities. The church has countered with accusations that the government lobbied the Vatican to undercut Obando y Bravo.

The church's role in politics has grown steadily in the last years. Its representatives make suggestions, criticisms, and comments on politics and social situations on the front pages of local newspapers. It still counts a large majority of Nicaraguans as its members. In a 1999 poll conducted by the Instituto de Estudios Nicaraguenses (IEN), 68.8% of respondents said they consider themselves Catholic, 17% evangelical Christians, 0.8% identifies with other religions, and 13.4% said they have no religion. Church records show the number of seminary students increased sixfold from 1972...

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