Basic ecclesial community

Base community is the common German term for Christian, mostly Catholic groups or communities that have formed in Latin America, especially since the fifties. In Spanish they are called eclesial comunidad de base to German: Basic Ecclesial Community.

History

The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the Second General Assembly of the Latin American Episcopate in Medellin (1968 ) supported the self-organization of the laity in the Catholic Church. For this reason - and parallel to the development of liberation theology - emerged in the sixties, seventies and into the eighties of the 20th century in many Latin American countries base communities, especially in the economic fringe areas and among the poor. They developed partly a strong political consciousness, especially in Brazil and Nicaragua, where the Revolution ( 1979) had a strong support in the base communities. Since the 1990s, the base communities develop with different focal points: from African-American, feminist, ecological or Indian perspective.

Worldwide importance

The Latin American base communities met with great interest and also imitators in Europe and North America. In Africa and Asia developed simultaneously similar structures in the Catholic Church - there usually under the name Small Christian Communities - Small Christian Communities. At present, various processes of networking and cooperation between the various continental flows take place.

In Europe, formed mainly in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands -based community movements. In Germany, there have been some attempts. From the side of liberation theology has been variously criticized the German reception of the base community concept frequently ignore the political content of the Latin American example and in the base communities only see a new ecclesiological paradigm, so they interpret as purely ecclesiastical development.

The practical theologians Norbert Mette and Hermann Steinkamp developed their concept of social pastoral inter alia, on the basis of a critical- solidarity conflict with the base communities and its reception in Germany.