POPE JOHN PAUL II'S 1983 VISIT TO NICARAGUA Pope's 1983 Visit to Nicaragua

Pope John Paul II's 1983 Visit to Nicaragua

Katharine Hoyt (1983) wrote a personal letter to her family concerning the 1983 visit of Pope John Paul II to Managua, Nicaragua. From the very beginning her feelings about the visit were made clear when she declared that she would rather forget the visit ever happened. From her perspective, her fellow citizens, at least the Sandinistas, were hoping to get some recognition for the sweat, blood, and tears shed in their revolution; a revolution based on the goal of establishing a more egalitarian society. What she feels the country got instead...

The Catholic Church had openly supported the overthrow of the Debayle Regime, but the Church cringed when it saw what appeared to be a totalitarian Marxist-Leninist regime taking hold in Nicaragua. From the perspective of Sandinista leaders, the Church had been actively attempting to undermine its legitimacy. Both claims seem to have some legitimacy.
Hoyt (1983) mentioned the "Popularum Progressio" encyclical given by Pope Paul VI in 1967 that…