Sandinistas clash with Church in Nicaragua

Conscription law heats up tensions as gangs harass priests and churchgoers
STRONG criticisms by the Nicaraguan bishops of the Sandinista government's military conscription law has heated up Church-state tensions to the point where Sandinista groups have prevented Sunday Masses in several churches arid the bishops, to protest government harrassment. ordered Masses cancelled on a religious holiday.
A key issue is the bishops' call to conscientious objection in a country where 90 per cent of the 2.8 million population professes Catholicism.
The bishops criticism also has highlighted the splits within the Catholic Church regarding the Marxist-influenced Sandinista government as numerous church groups have defended the law as necessary because of the United Statesfinanced guerrilla war.
"Evidently. this is an open persecution of the church in Nicaragua and, consequently we are worried," said Fr Bismarck Carballo. spokesman for Archbishop Miguel Obando Bravo of Managua, Nicaragua. He spoke after two priests were deported this month for alleged opposition to the law , at least eight churches were forced to cancel Sunday Masses on October 30 by government supporters and Auxiliary Bishop Bosco Vivas Robelo of Managua was beaten up.
In protest the bishops ordered Masses cancelled on All Soul's Day. when Nicaraguans traditionally gather at churches and cemeteries to honour the dead.
Archbishop Obando Bravo called the Sandinista harrassment which forced cancellation of the October 30 Masses "a sad spectacle" causing "an afternoon of hell."
A Sandinista group called "Las Turbas" prevented the Masses at churches where they said the pastors were opposed to the law. They were also accused by church officials of beating up Bishop Vivas Robelo when he tried to enter one of the churches. "Las Turbas" is Spanish for "disturbers of the peace".
The harrassment came after Defence Minister liumberto Ortega criticised "the reactionary clergy" who oppose the law and said Archbishop Obando Bravo, the key bishop opposing the government, is being "used by American imperialism." The archbishop denied that he is a tool of the government opponents. "Archbishop Obando is no politician," he said last week. The conscription law, decreed in September after the provisions had been made public for national debate, requires men aged 18 to 40 to register for military service. The government said the law is necessary because the country is threatened by guerrillas based in neighbouring Honduras and Costa Rica.
Prior to the law taking effect, the bishops criticised the regulations saying the aim was to make the army a defender of the Sandinista movement and not the state. They urged conscientious objection to the law.
The law "follows the general lines of all totalitarian-type legislation" and indicates that the government is moving toward an "absolute dictatorship of a political party," said a statement by the Nicaraguan Bishops Conference.
Under the law "the army becomes converted into an obligatory centre of political indoctrination in favour of the Sandinista party," said the bishops.
"It is not correct to mix, confuse and identify the concepts of nation, state, revolution and Sandinista ideology." The statement was the first major political pronouncement by the bishops since heavy guerrilla fighting began in February and the strongest criticism of the Sandinistas since they came to power in July 1979 after a twoyear civil war which toppled the regime of President Anastasio Somoza.
Initially, the bishops had given cautious support to the Sandinista National Liberation Front, a broad coalition of Marxists, socialists and Christian Democrats.
The statement drew immediate criticism from the government and progovernment Church groups, many of which consider participation in the government as the best way of fostering social justice. The split even reached the hierarchy. Bishop Carols Santi of Matagalpa criticised the support of conscientious objection and said he had not read the conference statement prior to passage and was not present at the meeting which approved the document.
A statement signed by several Christian youth groups, the Nicaraguan Religious Conference and the Jesuit-run Central American Historical Institute said the bishops' conference was defending middle-class interests Nicaraguan critics of the government have said the Sandinistas are trying to use the basic Christian communities to foment a "popular church" independent of the bishops. Many Christian community leaders say they want ties with the hierarchy but the bishops are abandoning them and refusing to issue any statement giving comfort to the relatives of people killed by the guerrillas. Many of the dead were active in the Christian communities or other church groups.
In a 1982 letter to the Nicaraguan bishops Pope John Paul favoured the concept of basic Christian communities as long as they accepted the authority of the hierarchy