Theology Today - Vol 45, No.1 - April 1988 - BOOK REVIEW - Basic Ecclesial Communities in Brazil: The Challenge of a New Way of Being Chur

133 - Basic Ecclesial Communities in Brazil: The Challenge of a New Way of Being Chur

Basic Ecclesial Communities in Brazil: The Challenge of a New Way of Being Church

By Marcello deC. Azevedo, S.J.

Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press, 1987. 304 Pp. $24.95 ($14.95 Paper).

This is a useful addition to the growing literature on the basic ecclesial communities (CEB's) in Latin America. Written by a Brazilian Jesuit with degrees in cultural anthropology and missiology, it provides a valuable overview of the theory and practice of what Azevedo calls a " paradigm shift" in the Brazilian Catholic church.

Azevedo traces the genesis of the ecclesial communities from earlier efforts at popular catechesis, including radio programs, literacy programs, and new efforts at evangelization in the 1950s and 1960s. The CEBs were formally launched by the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops in 1965 and endorsed at the Medellin Meeting of the Latin American Bishops Conference (CELAM) in 1968. Like others who have written on the movement, this author is uncertain as to how many CEBs there are, citing estimates of 50,000 to 80,000, but it is clear that this is a significant movement in the Brazilian church, involving as many as four million people.

The Brazilian edition of the book was completed in 1984, but in an Afterword for the English translation (by John Drury), written in 1986, Azevedo covers the important debate on liberation theology between the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Ratzinger, and leading members of the Brazilian church. He cites the two Instructions on liberation theology issued by the Congregation, and reproduces in full the letter of April 1986 to the Brazilian bishops from Pope John Paul II, which endorsed liberation theology as "timely, useful, and necessary" provided that it was "consistent and coherent with the ongoing Magisterium of the Church." The letter followed extensive discussions with Brazilian bishops who opposed the strong negative stand taken in the first Instruction because of liberation theology's supposed Marxist overtones.

Azevedo stresses the importance of links between the communities and the Brazilian hierarchy. The bishops initiated the movement; the pastoral agents established them at the grass roots; and Leonardo Boff is wrong to give "generative priority" to the community of believing people since Jesus "embodied the presence and assertion of authority." The new paradigm involves service and power-sharing by the laity, but it does not eliminate the need for an ordained ministry engaged in governing, pastoring, and maintaining unity. Thus, Azevedo differs from Richard Shaull, who sees the CEBs as representing a "New Reformation" in the Latin American church.

The book also reviews the debate concerning the class or social composition of the CEBs. Without specifically endorsing Boffs view

134 - Basic Ecclesial Communities in Brazil: The Challenge of a New Way of Being Chur

that middle and upper class Christians are too individualistic to qualify as members, Azevedo asserts that the CEBs "should be poor and of the poor" because they are more likely to have a "coherent personal and social life marked by communion and participation." He notes that the members of the CEBs have exhibited an increased interest in politics, but have refused to support the efforts of Marxist or middle and upper class organizers to politicize them in a particular direction. In a passage that is notable for its vagueness, Azevedo says that the CEBs should be the basis for a new communitarianism that rejects the two "bankrupt" models and systems "that are now polarizing the world," capitalism and Marxist socialism. This communitarianism is to be "a dialectical synthesis, a new creation, superimposing itself on thesis and antithesis rather than retrieving them." The passage illustrates the controversy in Latin American Catholicism between those who continue to endorse the "third-position-ism" (tercerismo) of Catholic social teaching and those (including all liberation theologians that I know of) who believe that only socialism can be in accord with Christian values.

Despite an occasional fuzziness of argumentation, the book discusses most of the major issues in the current literature about the basic ecclesial communities. It is much better documented than most writing by Brazilians on the subject, and there is a comprehensive bibliography. Except for a passing reference to a critical work by Bonaventura Kloppenburg, who has attacked the CEBs and liberation theology for turning over Nicaragua to the Marxists, there is no discussion of experiences outside of Brazil. Those interested in an important ecclesiological innovation in Brazilian Roman Catholicism will find this an excellent introduction.

PAUL E. SIGMUND

Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey