4 Priest-Officials Curbed

Four Roman Catholic priests holding high posts in the Nicaraguan government were ordered by the nation’s bishops not “to exercise their priestly ministries or to participate in sacred functions”--including officiating at Mass, hearing confessions or offering Communion. However, the four--Foreign Minister Miguel d’Escoto; Culture Minister Ernesto Cardenal; his brother, Education Minister Fernando Cardenal, and Edgard Parrales, ambassador to the Organization of American States--said that despite the bishops’ action, they will continue to defy Vatican instructions to give up their posts.