Fr Cardenal was suspended from the priesthood after refusing to step down as education minister in the left-wing government, which he joined following the overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1979.

Fr Cardenal, a supporter of Liberation Theology, was expelled from the Jesuits.

But he stated he could not conceive of a God who would ask him to abandon his commitment to the people.

Fr Cardenal led a successful literacy campaign in Nicaragua.

He was eventually re-admitted to the Jesuits in 1996.

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Maryknoll priest Fr Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, 81, had formally requested permission to resume priestly duties and to celebrate Mass before he died.

Nicaraugua's foreign minister from 1979 to 1990, he is to be accompanied by the Maryknoll superior general while being re-integrated into priestly ministry.

Although barred from priestly ministry, Fr D'Escoto remained a member of his Maryknoll congregation.

Despite repeated entreaties by the Vatican and religious orders, he and two other clerics persisted as ministers in the Sandanista government and received suspensions as priests in 1985.

The Code of Canon Law prohibits priests from holding partisan political offices.

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