By Gretchen Keiser

The bearded priest and the young man from Nicaragua are an unlikely-looking team, traveling throughout Georgia for several weeks speaking about events that have taken place in the Central American country during the last three years.

Father Bernard Survil, a 41-year-old diocesan priest from Greensburg, PA, has been pastor of a parish in the Archdiocese of Managua, Nicaragua, both before and after the Sandinista revolution in 1979. His companion, 19-year-old Reuben Ulloa, is a Nicaraguan about to begin university studies, he has now twice traveled to the United States to talk about Nicaragua after the revolution. Their trip was sponsored by the Disciples of Christ.

Typically, Father Survil acts as interpreter for Ruben, in talks to high school students "youth to youth." Among the places they were scheduled to talk were St. Pius X High School and two schools in Savannah. The questions which often come up concern the relationship between Nicaragua and Cuba.

Translating for Ruben Ulloa, Father Survil said Nicaragua has "a tremendous need" for teachers, for medical personnel and for other skilled workers to carry out massive literacy and health campaigns launched after the revolution overthrowing the government of Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Cuba sent several thousand teachers to work in the literacy campaign, according to press reports. Still, Ulloa said, Mexico "is the number one country that has been helping Nicaragua." Later, in conversations with some of those attending a lunchtime talk at the Catholic Center, Ulloa said that several factors differentiated the Nicaraguan revolution from that which brought Fidel Castro to power in Cuba.

In Nicaragua, he said, a cross-section of the population is represented in the government and there is no single strongman or central figure. Father Survil cited the presence of the church in Nicaragua's government -- and in the country -- as a significant difference.

Father Survil said that many of his parishioners saw the presence of priests in Nicaragua's government as "a moderating influence" and he said that the church's continuing presence in the country, rather than fight in the face of revolution, could only work for the preservation of religious rights as the government moves forward.

Since the revolution, however, there has been "a deterioration" in relations between the government and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, he said. At the time of the overthrow, the bishops strongly supported the rights of Nicaraguans to resist oppression. Now, Father Survil said, it is the "lower clergy, such as myself," who tend to be favorable to the revolution.

Father Survil said that he, personally, did not exactly share the Nicaraguan bishops' concern about danger to religious freedom. However, he said, "there's tension" between the aims of the church and the resolution.

"Lau people become so active in the revolution, they don't have time for the church," he said. "We're always looking for more workers in the vineyard" and in danger of "losing our best catechists" to programs like the literacy and health campaigns.

Ruben Ulloa was among thousands of Nicaraguan students who went into the mountains for several months in 1980 during an intense campaign to teach the majority of Nicaragua's population to read and write. When Somoza's government fell, 56 percent of the population was illiterate, Father Survil said. The campaign was estimated to reach almost 500,000 people. Father Survil also traveled to the mountains, to keep in touch with the students and bring the sacraments to them, but he said, obviously, the church faces a tremendous challenge in working with youth under conditions of dramatic upheaval and change.

Father Survil also said that the country "feels very much under siege" in the climate prevailing in Central America, with U.S. military involvement in El Salvador, and harsh U.S. diplomatic statements by Secretary of State Alexander Haig and U.N. Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick. Nicaragua is in need of economic aid and skilled help, he said, "but the militaristic talk of Haig forces the Sandinistas to prepare militarily."

In contrast, he said he was "very grateful for what the (U.S.) bishops have said in their statement on Central America," which urged an end to military aid to the region and, in Nicaragua's case, criticized efforts to isolate the country from support and prevent its access to resources needed for reconstruction.