Basic Ecclesial Communities: From Medellin-Puebla to Our Times

Abstract

Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) became a milestone in the life of Latin American Church during the second half of the last century both for the evangelizing mission (salvation-liberation-option for the poor) and social structure (charismatic communities and ministries), as can be evidenced in the documents of the Episcopal Conferences of Latin America in Medellin (1968) and Puebla (1979). In the documents, these communities are deemed as a pastoral project or, at least, an essential aspect of the pastoral project suggested for the entire Church of the region. However, this began to change drastically at the end of the eighties, especially since the Santo Domingo Conference (1992). From being a pastoral project or essential aspect of a pastoral project, BECs became one group among others (even one that had to be tolerated). The latter has not changed, not even after the Aparecida Conference (2007). Bearing this in mind, the article deals with the relevance and place of BECs within different ecclesial contexts. First, it deals with BECs within the conferences of Medellin and Puebla, and, then, it considers some of the challenges and perspectives for BECs within the current ecclesial context. Thus, the first part of the article is of analytic nature in which an analysis of the documents is carried out, and the second one is reflective and presents some thoughts regarding the current ecclesial context.