ABSTRACT
Priest Obando y Bravo was one of the strongest public critics of the Sandinista (see Sandinista Revolu tion) government. Ordained in 1958 and ap pointed Archbishop of Managua in 1970, he opposed Somoza’s dictatorship (see Somoza dynasty) at the end of the 1970s. After the Sandinista triumph in 1979, he moved gradually from critical distance to open opposition. By the mid-1980s he became a focus for the internal opposition, arguing for reconciliation and dialogue with the contras, which was unacceptable to the Sandinistas. In Nicaragua he came to symbolize both traditional Catholicism and the new active role of Latin American Church hierarchy against liberation theology and the popular church.
