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Catholic World News News Feature

Sandinista priest to lead UN's General Assembly June 05, 2008

A Maryknoll priest who was a leading figure in Nicaragua's leftist government during the 1980s has been elected president of the UN general assembly.

Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, who was foreign minister of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, will succeed Macedonia's Srgjan Kerim in September, holding the position for a year. The president of the UN General Assembly ordinarily does not command media attention, but D'Escoto, with his penchant for controversy, may be an exception to that rule.

D'Escoto, the son of a Nicaraguan diplomat, was a key figure in the rise of the Sandinista party in Nicaragua. He defied instructions from the Vatican when he became foreign minister for the leftist Sandinista regime, which clashed frequently with the country's Catholic hierarchy.

During his 1983 visit to Nicaragua, Pope John Paul II publicly admonished another priest who was involved in the Sandinista government-- Father Ernesto Cardenal, then serving as culture minister-- in a dramatic scene that was relayed around the world. The Pope told Cardenal that he should leave the government and regularize his status as a priest. D'Escoto (to whom the same advice clearly applied) was not present at that meeting.

In public remarks after he was elected, D'Escoto said that he would not use his UN position to continue his long history of public attacks on the US. Nevertheless he condemned "acts of aggression, such as those occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan."