The Church of the Poor in the 1990s

by Pablo Richard

One of the major contributions of the Latin American Church has been the proliferation of Christian base communities. Pablo Richard has worked with these communities for the past two decades, and written extensively on the subject. The following article first appeared in the March-April, 1990 edition of "PASOS" in San Jose, Costa Rica.

The decade of the nineties will be difficult for the Church of the poor in Central America. The events which occurred in Eastern Europe and the Persian Gulf challenge our analysis of the world; and a decade of war and economic crisis challenges our hope as Christians. We are "beaten down, but not defeated" (II Corinthians 4:8-9). Our peoples have incalculable human, social, political, cultural and spiritual resources. Now more than ever it is imperative that the Church of the poor develop a vision of the future which will permit it to move forward and gain strength.

The Christian base communities represent the future of the Church of the poor in the decade of the nineties. During the past two decades, these communities have been the major expression of the spiritual wealth of the Church in Central America. Who are the Christian base communities? How do they relate to the life of the people? What challenges do they face today in responding to the new international context? This article will attempt to answer these questions.

The people of Central America are living through a difficult time in their history, but they have not lost their hope and their gratitude for life as they begin to forge a path for the Church of the poor in the decade of the nineties.

The Christian base community is a form of Church lived in a communitarian manner among the poor. It is an experience of community, a group of 15 or 20 people who struggle to overcome their individualism and mutual distrust in order to know, love and trust each other as brothers and sisters. The Christian base community is also a faith community. Its identity is not primarily social or political, but Christian, and it tries to experience all that it means to be Church.

Finally, the Christian base community is a grassroots community, made up of the poor. It is the poor, above all, who need community in order to survive. The middle class and the rich are more individualistic; they have the necessary resources to survive without sharing their lives with others.

The Christian base communities are not a movement like Catholic Action or the charismatic renewal, but the experience of Church at the grassroots level; nor are they a sect, since they try to live out the universal vocation of the Church. Neither can they be defined as an intermediate structure between the parish and the family; the Christian base communities are much more than that. They are a new way of being Church, a new model of Church, opposed to the colonial model of Church imposed on the poor of the Third World by Western Christendom.

This new model of Church, which is called "the Church of the poor" or "the Church born of the people", is not only made up of the Christian base communities. It is not possible to organize everyone into a Christian base community, but these communities do attempt to serve as an example for the entire Church. The Christian base communities are an evangelizing force in the heart of the people, and they try to inspire the totality of the People of God with their social, cultural and spiritual identity.

We could summarize the basic methodology of the Christian base communities as one of participation. This participation happens in two ways: first, the participation of the poor in the Church; and second, the participation of the Church in the life of the poor. This experience of participation is an alternative to the domination and exclusion which the poor have experienced for centuries.

Over the past twenty years, Christians in base communities committed to liberation struggles have often lived in confrontation with the hierarchy and the institutional leadership of the Church. Ecclesiastical life was polarized: on one side were those who lived at the grassroots and were committed to and inspired by liberation theology and the work of evangelization; on the other side were those who were committed to an authoritarian, dogmatic institutional Church centered around defending its own interests.

This confrontation was perhaps inevitable at a time when it was necessary to initiate a public discourse about a new model of Church. Now, however, by making an option for "the People of God"--instead of against the hierarchy--hopefully the poor will be better able to participate in the Church without evoking a hostile response from the hierarchy.

The Christian base communities are, above all, the place where the poor take part in the life of the Church. It has always been difficult for the poor and the oppressed to participate in the Church, even though they constitute the majority of the people in Central America; and it is especially difficult for the poor to participate in a way that includes their class interests, culture, and religious expression.

Here we refer to the participation of farmworkers, the urban poor, people of indigenous or African descent, women and young people. A creative participation in the Church is extremely difficult for most people from these sectors, and when it does occur it is most often a subordinate or superficial participation.

This participation is possible, however, in the Christian base communities. In a small community everyone can participate with dignity and freedom. Developing this participation is not always easy, however, since the oppressed are not used to participating, and when they do participate they often repeat what they have heard from their oppressors. But when we believe in the methodology of participation, and we develop this participation over many years, it becomes a reality. Even more, it becomes irreversible: the oppressed no longer submit passively to authoritarian methods.

The Christian base communities, then, are a concrete way the poor and the oppressed participate in the Church. This participation is a creative one, in which the people begin with their class interests and their culture to create a new language and new religious symbols, new forms of prayer and new liturgies, new ministries, a new way to read the Bible, and a new way to do theology.

The Christian base communities are a workshop of ecclesiastical creativity; the poor really participate in the Church and transform the Church from below through their culture and their religious traditions.

The Christian base communities are not only a place where the poor and marginalized are able to participate in the Church, they are also the place where the Church participates in the life of the poor. It is difficult for ecclesiastical institutions to participate in the life of the people, since the institutional Church is often closer to the dominant powers than to the poor. Even the parishes, which may play an important role in the life of the people, usually have little if any relationship to the popular organizations and the popular movements.

The Christian base communities, on the other hand, because of their small size, their creativity and their spirituality, are able to participate in the life of the people, especially in the life of the poor and the oppressed who live on the margins of society. The Christian base communities do encourage basic religious activities such as prayer, Bible readings and theological reflection, but they also participate in the promotion of labor unions and cooperatives, alternative health care and education, the defense of human rights, and solidarity with the struggles of indigenous peoples and women.

The participation of the Christian base communities in the life of the poor and in the popular movements is not superfluous to the evangelical and sacramental mission of the Church. The participation of the Church, through these Christian base communities, in the liberation movements of the people is at the heart of the Church's mission of evangelization and its efforts to build the Kingdom of God.

By identifying with the life of the poor, the Christian base communities are transformed into a visible sign of the liberating presence of God, and of the spiritual potential of the poor in our midst. In the same way, the participation of the Christian base communities in the popular movements gives expression to the cultural, ethical and spiritual identity of the people.

There is little doubt that spirituality is the major strength of the Christian base communities and the Church of the poor in Central America. The root of this spirituality is the experience of God's presence in the world of the poor. The profundity and intensity of this experience is manifested when the community celebrates its martyrs. There are few communities in Central America without martyrs, and the number of martyrs today is in the tens of thousands. They include lay people, nuns and priests, and even a martyred archbishop, Oscar Romero of El Salvador. These martyrs were assassinated because they struggled for justice, and were faithful to the Word of God.

But there are also people alive today who, with great suffering and resistance, bear witness to the resurrection in the struggle of the people for their liberation. The liberation struggles of the people are not only economic, political and cultural, but also spiritual. Through the Christian base communities,

the poor awaken to the liberating presence of God in their midst, empowering them to break down structures of domination and death, and offering them new life (Isaiah 65, Revelations 21 and 22). This hope for resurrection is so great that the people no longer speak of being threatened with death, but rather "threatened with resurrection" (words of a poem by the Guatemalan poet Julia Esquivel).

The Christian base communities are also authentic places of personal and communitarian prayer, including the prayers which are expressed by the people in their religious festivals. Even the celebration of the Eucharist acquires a very special significance through the witness of the martyrs, as it recalls the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, renews the life of the community, and anticipates the coming of the Kingdom of God.

a) Christian Base Communities and the Popular Movement

The Christian base communities are an integral part of the popular movement. Even though the people of Central America are poor, they do have great human, cultural and spiritual resources. The Church gives expression to the spiritual wealth of the oppressed through the Christian base communities, and celebrates it in the liberation struggles of the people.

In this way the Church of the poor makes a crucial contribution to the liberation of the Central American people. The challenge for the Church of the poor is to deepen the participation of the Christian base communities in the popular movements, and through these communities to develop all the liberating potential of the Central American people.

b) Christian Base Communities and Religious Traditions

In Latin America there often exists a duality between the official religion and popular religion. The faithful baptize their children, go to Mass, obey the laws of the Church, but at the same time they practice their own rites and popular traditions. This duality has its origins in the time of the conquest of the Latin American continent in the sixteenth century. Faced with the violent and bloody God of the Spanish conquerors who demanded sacrifice, the Indian people assimilated the religion of Jesus, Mary and the saints into their ancient indigenous traditions.

The great challenge for the Christian base communities is to root themselves profoundly in the religious reality of the people so as to overcome this dualism of popular religion and official religion.

c) Christian Base Communities and New Ministries

Power in the Catholic Church today is concentrated almost exclusively in the clergy. From a sociological perspective, this "sacred" power is profoundly sexist because it excludes women. It is an authoritarian power which is not shared with the community, a power which is most often elitist, reserved for middle or upper class men. This, too, makes the participation of people of other cultures and classes different. This model of ministry is "colonial", because in many countries foreigners still predominate and local priests continue to be educated in European and Western schools.

Nearly three decades ago campesinos in Central America began to be trained as lay ministers, or "delegates of the Word of God". In contrast to the traditional Church, in the Christian base communities ecclesiastical ministries are shared among the people. Lay people are catechists and missionaries, and they are responsible for liturgies as well as for certain ministries such as visiting the sick. Usually they are married, and often they are people of indigenous or African descent.

Hopefully, in the future, some of these local ministers, men and women, will be able to celebrate baptisms and the Eucharist. If the Church is to have a future, as a Church which is really rooted in the culture of the people and in the reality of Central America, these changes must be welcomed and not opposed.

d) Christian Base Communities and Liberation Theology

The Third World needs a new model of Church which responds to its own political and cultural situation. As long as the Church continues to be Western and colonial, it will never be universal. In Central America a new model of Church is already emerging, a Church of the poor, whose mission is to make the Gospel credible as a force of liberation in poor and oppressed cultures.

The theology of the Church of the poor is liberation theology; no other theology responds as well to the need to create a new model of Church in the Third World, and specifically in Latin America. Today, liberation theology begins in the reflection of the Christian base communities. Here the poor find the space to reflect critically on their faith and their participation in the liberation struggles of their people. This reflection is the spiritual force of the Church of the poor which will permit, in the long run, and from the perspective of the poor, an authentic renewal of the Church.

e) Christian Base Communities, Ecumenism and the Sects

The scandal within the Universal Church is not that so many churches exist, but that they struggle among themselves to claim the People of God exclusively as their own. The Church of the poor is strongly ecumenical. The Christian base communities are not trying to build the "Kingdom" of the Church, but a Church which is a sign of the Kingdom of God.

A specific problem which the Church of the poor must confront ecumenically is the problem of the fundamentalist churches. These churches, or "sects", have prospered because the poor of Central America often feel afraid; they are crushed down and abandoned, with little participation in society. The fundamentalist churches respond to this situation of abandonment, fear, marginality and despair, and for that reason they are successful; but they do so in an alienating way.

Experience shows us that where there are Christian base communities the fundamentalist churches do not prosper. The challenge to the Church of the poor is to respond in a liberating way to the spiritual needs of the people through the multiplication of the Christian base communities.

f) Christian Base Communities and a New Reading of the Bible

The Christian base communities have developed a new method of reading of the Bible, which is born of the convergence of three factors: a community of faith, biblical exegesis, and a struggle for liberation. This method of reading the Bible begins with a communal, not an individualistic reading of the text. By reading the Bible in community, the people are able to better discern the truth of the Word of God in their lives.

Second, the base communities use biblical exegesis to understand better the historical context in which the Scriptures were written. This has been possible because a number of professional exegetes have put themselves at the service of the community and have believed in the action of the Holy Spirit in the community.

Finally, the communal reading, illuminated by biblical exegesis, is done within the struggle for liberation. It is here that the community becomes an active participant in building a new society, and lives out in a special way the experience of God's presence and revelation in the poor of the Third World.

The challenge for the Church of the poor in the 1990s is to faithfully defend the poor, whose lives are being threatened. This requires continued faithfulness to the revelation of God in the poor of the Third World, and perseverance in giving support to liberation theology and to the Christian base communities. As long as people struggle for life and justice, and maintain their faith and hope in the God of life, it will be imperative for all of us to do liberation theology--regardless of opposition from powerful sectors in the secular world or from conservative sectors of the Church.

What is at stake is the struggle of the poor for life. The poor of the Third World have awakened to their own dignity; they have become aware of their own culture and the religious roots of their liberation. Popular movements are growing and the people are acquiring more power.

The blood of the six Jesuits and the two women of El Salvador, and the blood of all the martyrs whose names we do not know, is being transformed into the Resurrection, into a New Earth and a New Heaven, into New Men and New Women, here and now in the Third World.