Managua, Nicaragua, Mar 2, 2020 / 05:06 pm (CNA).- Fr. Ernesto Cardenal, a Nicaraguan poet and Marxist liberation theology activist whose priestly faculties were long suspended for his assuming a public office, died Sunday at the age of 95.
Fr. Cardenal died March 1 after a brief hospitalization.
His wake will be at the Mount of Olives funeral home, and a funeral Mass will be said March 3 Managua’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral.
Fr. Cardenal was born Jan. 20, 1925 in Granada, Nicaragua. He studied literature and was for a time at the Trappist’s Gethsemani monastery in Kentucky, but he returned to Nicaragua and was ordained a priest in 1965.
The following year he founded an artists colony on an archipelago in Lake Nicaragua.
When the Sandinista National Liberation Front ousted Nicaragua’s Somoza dictatorship in 1979, Fr. Cardenal was named Minister of Culture in the new government. Canon law forbids clerics from assuming public offices which entail a participation in the exercise of civil power.
St. John Paul II publicly reprimanded Fr. Cardenal when he visited Nicaragua in 1983.
The priest continued to serve as Nicaragua’s culture minister until 1987, and he later distanced himself from the FSLN.
He was absolved of all canonical censures one year ago. The Nicaraguan apostolic nunciature announced Feb. 18, 2019 that Pope Francis had accepted the request recently made by Fr. Cardenal “to be readmitted to the exercise of the priestly ministry.”
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Lima, Peru, Jul 15, 2020 / 02:25 pm (CNA).- A group of Franciscan sisters in Ica, Peru, is offering a facility free of charge as temporary quarantine housing for coronavirus patients who are asymptomatic or experiencing only mild symptoms.
The temporary shelter was dedicated July 14 in La Tinguiña, Ica Province, one of the regions still under lockdown due to the large number of COVID-19 cases.
According to local media, the mother superior of the convent, Mother Rosa Fernández, made the commitment to provide rooms at no cost to infected people who need to quarantine until they are no longer contagious.
The rooms each contain their own bed and bathroom, with everything sanitized. The facility is the first of its kind in the region.
During the opening ceremony, Fernández asked God to bless the people who have made this initiative possible, as well as all who will use the facilities, that the Lord may restore their health “as soon as possible.”
“If our humble house can be of any use, well, here it is,” she said.
Local government and health officials were on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony opening the housing facility, which will provide 30 beds.
The mayor of La Tinguiña, Juan Roque Hernández, stressed that Fernández is providing the housing for free.
“[She] is not charging us a dime for the room,” he said.
In previous statements to local media, Mayor Hernández stressed that the temporary housing complies with healthy and safety protocols, and its use help create “an epidemiological fence that reduces the number of cases in the region.”
The mayor stressed that this initiative also seeks to raise awareness among the people on the importance of temporary housing for people with COVID-19 in order to prevent the spread of the virus in the community.
According to the Ministry of Health, Peru has had more than 330,000 cases of the novel coronavirus with more than 12,000 deaths. The country ranks fifth worldwide in the number of COVID-19 cases, and the Ica region has more than 9,000 cases to date.
To prevent the pandemic from advancing, the country’s government declared a mandatory national lockdown from March 16 to June 30. However, some areas remain under lockdown due to the high number of new daily cases.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Denver Newsroom, Jul 22, 2022 / 17:47 pm (CNA).
With the recent death of three homeless Venezuelan immigrants who perished in a shipping container, Archbishop Fernando Chomali of Concepción, Chile, said that “Chile is sic… […]
The President of the Communications Commission of the 2024 International Eucharistic Congress, Father Livingston Olivares (left), accompanies EWTN Vice President for Programming and Production Peter Gagnon (center-right), EWTN Vice President for Spanish-language Production, Marketing, and Radio Enrique Duprat (center-left), EWTN Production Director Michael Holmes (far right), and IEC Quito 2024 Communications Coordinator Marcelo Mejía (front, kneeling) at the Monument to the Equator, the exact location of the Equator (from which the country of Ecuador takes its name) on the outskirts of the country’s capital city of Quito, site of the 2024 International Eucharistic Congress. / Credit: Communications Commission of the 2024 International Eucharistic Congress
ACI Prensa Staff, May 21, 2024 / 06:40 am (CNA).
The 53rd International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) has chosen EWTN as the official channel for providing live coverage of the event, which will take place from Sept. 8–15 in Quito, Ecuador.
“The 53rd International Eucharistic Congress, which will be held in Quito Sept. 8–15, has chosen EWTN as its official channel, which will broadcast everything related” to this great event, said Father Juan Carlos Garzón, secretary-general of the IEC Quito 2024, in a statement sent from Rome to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.
The theme for this year’s International Eucharistic Congress is “Fraternity to Heal the World.” On Monday, the Vatican also announced that Pope Francis designated Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect for the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, as pontifical legate to the congress.
Garzón was in Rome last week as part of a delegation, chaired by Alfredo Espinoza Mateus, archbishop of Quito and primate of Ecuador, “to hold a series of meetings with the main papal authorities.”
Since the beginning of the preparations for IEC 2024, Garzón added: “EWTN has been present at the orientation and training for IEC 2024 communications personnel.”
Logo for the 53rd International Eucharistic Congress that will take place in Quito, Ecuador, from Sept. 8-15, 2024. Credit: Communications Commission of the 2024 International Eucharistic Congress
EWTN preparations for IEC Quito 2024
In tandem, to coordinate EWTN’s transmissions of IEC Quito 2024, a team from the network visited the Ecuadorian capital, including the Quito Metropolitan Convention Center, where the congress will be held.
The team was comprised of EWTN Vice President for Programming and Production Peter Gagnon, EWTN Director of Production Michael Holmes, and EWTN Vice President for Spanish-language Production, Marketing, and Radio Enrique Duprat.
Gagnon said EWTN transmissions of the event will be offered in Spanish, English, and German. “This will be a wonderful event for those attending and for those watching,” Gagnon said.
“For EWTN, it is an immense joy to be the channel for the Quito 2024 International Eucharistic Congress,” Duprat said. “It is essential for us to be the platform on which, no matter where our audience is, everyone can enjoy the most important Catholic events in the Church.”
As for coverage details, Duprat said: “The plan is to be able to offer this International Eucharistic Congress live and direct from Quito and in multiple languages [Spanish, English, and German] both through our television and radio signals, the internet, and through our digital app.”
The event coincides with the 150th anniversary of the 1874 consecration of Ecuador to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1886, Quito was also the site of the first National Eucharistic Congress.
During their preparatory visit, the EWTN team traveled the route of a procession that will take place on Sept. 14 in the historic center of Quito, which will begin with a Mass in San Francisco Plaza and then head to the Basilica of the National Vow, where benediction will be given.
They also visited the IEC offices, where they were received by Garzón, who explained how the organization of the event is progressing, including the schedule of a theological symposium to be held Sept. 4–7, just prior to the Sept. 8–15 congress.
The EWTN delegation also visited the Middle of the World Park and Monument to the Equator, marking the equator dividing the northern and southern hemispheres and where a Liturgy of the Word is planned with emphasis on care for creation.
Registration underway
Registration for the International Eucharistic Congress, both for the theological symposium and for the congress itself, is underway and available through the event website.
The largest Catholic media organization in the world, EWTN’s 11 global TV channels and numerous regional channels are broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 425 million television households in more than 160 countries and territories. EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and more than 600 domestic and international AM and FM radio affiliates and a worldwide shortwave radio service.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., EWTN News operates multiple global news services, including Catholic News Agency; The National Catholic Register newspaper and digital platform; ACI Prensa in Spanish; ACI Digital in Portuguese; ACI Stampa in Italian; ACI Africa in English, French, and Portuguese; ACI Mena in Arabic; CNA Deutsch in German; and ChurchPop, a digital platform that creates content in several languages. It also produces numerous television news programs including “EWTN News Nightly,” “EWTN News In Depth,” “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly,” and “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let your perpetual light shine upon Fr. Ernesto Cardenal.