The Salesian Cardinals

Don Bosco’s Sons Who Became Cardinals

Abp. Miguel Obando Bravo (1926-2018)

(ANS – Rome – Sept. 18, 2023) – The historic consistory of May 25, 1985, saw the assignment of three red hats to Don Bosco’s sons, including the archbishop of Managua and primate of Nicaragua, Archbishop Miguel Obando Bravo, a leading figure not only in the local Church, but for the entire nation, so much that he was declared “national priest for peace and reconciliation” by a special law in 2016.

Miguel Obando Bravo was born in La Libertad, Nicaragua, on February 2, 1926, to a peasant family. After attending courses at the Salesian school in Granada, he obtained his baccalaureate in Latin and Greek in San Salvador and, after attending the Normal School of the same city, he graduated in mathematics, physics, and philosophy.

Upon entering the Salesian Congregation in 1949, he professed his first vows on January 31, 1950, in Ayagualo, near El Salvador, and his perpetual vows in Antigua, Guatemala, on October 29, 1955. He studied theology in Guatemala and later psychology of vocations in Colombia, Venezuela, and Rome. He was ordained on August 10, 1958, in Antigua.

He was a teacher of mathematics and physics in high schools in Nicaragua and El Salvador; then director of the Rinaldi formation house in El Salvador from 1961 to 1968; provincial councilor for Central America (CAM); and the CAM delegate to the 19th General Chapter of the Salesian Congregation, which took place in Rome in 1965.

Appointed by Paul VI as titular bishop of Puzia di Bizacena and auxiliary of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, on January 18, 1968, he received episcopal ordination on March 31 that year. During his time in Matagalpa, he devoted particular pastoral attention to the campesinos and their urgent problems.

On February 16, 1970, he became archbishop of Managua, taking possession of the archdiocese on April 4 of the same year.

In a very difficult period in the history of Nicaragua, with contradictory currents, he knew how to act as a bulwark for contradictory tendencies. He was vocal in opposing injustices and violence, including through pastoral letters and in the columns of the archdiocesan newspaper. He systematically denounced corruption and human rights violations. He was especially critical of the corruption of Anastasio Somoza’s regime, which manifested itself through the government’s mismanagement of funds allocated for relief after the 1972 Managua earthquake. He also criticized the human rights violations committed by the National Guard. His criticism, justified and appropriate but constant, earned him the irreverent nickname “Comandante Miguel” by pro-government factions, as if he were a leader of the Sandinista opponents.

But faithful only to the Church and the Nicaraguan people, Obando Bravo was not even a partisan of the Sandinistas when the revolutionary government was established in 1980. He opposed the “Church of the People,” the radical clergy who supported liberation theology, and banned the Nicaraguan Peasant Mass; indeed, he insisted on the canonical obligation of the clergy to refuse political roles and opposed what he called the “godless Communism” of the Sandinistas.

Pope John Paul II created him a cardinal on May 25, 1985, and made him titular of St. John the Evangelist in Spinaceto (Rome). On his return home, all the people took to the streets to welcome the country’s first cardinal. And as proof of his esteem for him, in 1987 John Paul II invited him to write the texts of the meditations for the Via Crucis at the Colosseum.

He was president of the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference for five terms (1971-75, 1979-83, 1985-89, 1993-97, and 1999-2005) and from 1976 to 1981 he was president of the Episcopal Secretariat of Central America and Panama.

Convinced that problems can be resolved through dialog, he was the guarantor of agreements for peace and reconciliation that, on several occasions, had put an end to violence. The last time he was invited to this position was in 2007: he accepted, but only after receiving permission from the Holy See, with Pope Benedict XVI encouraging him to “work for the reconciliation of the Nicaraguan family.”

Faithful to his Pauline episcopal motto Omibus omnia factus (“all things for all people”), the cardinal always remembered that the Church in his country was not aligned with any party but was with the people, ready to denounce every injustice. He wanted a Church totally dedicated to evangelization and, in fact, to strengthen it he promoted the diocesan synod in Managua, with the aim of making the truth about Christ and the truth about man a part of society, thanks to the contribution of lay Christians.

As cardinal he did not fail to bring the issues of his land to the attention of the world, and his action did not remain hidden: numerous international organizations gave him prestigious awards for his uninterrupted pastoral and humanitarian work.

Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo died on June 3, 2018, and is buried in the chapel of the Redemptoris Mater Catholic University in Managua.