[3] The purpose of the base ecclesial community engaged in Bible study is "be[ing] taught and nourished by the Word of God" and "being formed and animated by the inspirational power conveyed by Scripture".
They spread to Africa, and then to Asia where some have morphed into models for neighborliness in modern urban and ecumenical environments, with the hope that Christian renewal at the peripheries will impact cultural centers.
Initially, their very structure encouraged discussion and solidarity within the community over submission to church authority and, as their very name suggests, made power seem to flow from the bottom or base upward.
One of the best-known groups was Hungarian priest György Bulányi's "Bokor" (Bush) movement after World War II, which sought to save the teachings of the Christian Church and resist the increasing persecution by the Communist Party.
The Base Christian communities work to fulfill Christ's purpose to proclaim good news to the poor, tell them of hope, and to remind all people that there is always someone loving them somewhere, and that they still have a chance in life.
In the 1960s basic ecclesial communities (BEC) spread rapidly, encouraged by the emphasis which the Catholic bishops at the Second Vatican Council and at the Latin American Medellin Conference gave to more active engagement of the laity in living the gospel imperatives.
The Latin American bishops, following up on their 1968 statement at Medellin which called for an "effective preference to the needy and poorest sectors" of society, issued in 1979 at Puebla a document entitled "A Preferential Option for the Poor".
[6] A decline in base communities in some parts of Latin America has been attributed to Pope John Paul II's appointment of more conservative bishops[7] and his difficulty in understanding the complexities of liberation theology.
"[11] The communities have received strong endorsement from the Catholic hierarchy, beginning with the Latin American bishops at Medellin in the wake of Vatican II, who strove "to encourage and favor the efforts of the people to create and develop their own grassroots organizations for the redress and consolidation of their rights and the search for true justice.
[14] The proliferation of BECs in Brazil was particularly widespread in comparison to the rest of Latin America: it has been estimated that the amount of base communities in the country at the peak of the liberationist movement counted at least 70,000, with upwards of two and a half million members.
[18] One of the main causes for the spread of base communities in the country were concerns over widespread poverty and malnutrition, in addition to the increasing gap in the ratio of Catholic priests to parishioners characteristic of all of Latin America during the 20th century.
Church officials considered the BEC's promotion of lay training, participation, and leadership, along with the "See-Judge-Act" method practiced within, as a potential solution to both of these problems and thus encouraged their development throughout the country.
[18] Beginning in the 1980s, an additional factor inspiring the formation of base communities in Mexico was support and solidarity for refugees fleeing from civil wars and military dictatorships in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
Beginning as small reflection groups, the nuns of the Religiosas del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (RSCJ) gathered women from throughout the city to discuss domestic and neighborhood issues.
[20] By 1972, at least twenty different base community groups met regularly in Santa Cecilia, additionally training members as catechists to provide religious service to thousands of parishioners.
A key part of this liberatory experience for the women of Santa Cecilia's base communities were empowering moments of confronting, challenging, and defeating powerful men such as bosses, factory owners, or even their own husbands and fathers.
Soon after, in 1982, Sisters Regina Johnson, Mildred Payne, and Carmen Lechthaler of the Maryknoll order arrived in the city to help organize and manage within the community, leading classes and Bible study groups.
Within the small study groups characteristic of the base community model, they led conscientizing discussions which taught members that their poverty was not a natural state of the world, nor was it God's will—both common narratives up to this point—but rather a result of Mexico's glaring social inequalities and stark economic hierarchy, always returning to the Bible as their source of reflection.
The group formed early in the 1970s, part of a pastoral plan supported by Church authorities in the diocese that sought to bring more priests to the countryside, and included fathers Benigno Martínez, José Batarse, and Jesús de la Torre, among others.
[23] The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1904) established a pattern of the United States imposing a capitalist model of development on Latin America, often to the detriment of the poorest peoples.
However, "hundreds of thousands of defenseless BEC members were killed by state-sponsored, U.S.-trained and supported military, paramilitary, and police forces in no less than ten Latin American countries,"[24][25] including missionaries from the United States, local pastors, and a bishop.
"[31] The diversity of religions and the small number of Christians in most parts of Asia have also led to experiments in forming local Basic Human Communities (BHC) open to people of all faiths.
"[33] The Council directed the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to "issue an official statement on BECs, on their nature and functions as recognized by the Church, making it clear that they are not simply another organization.
[35] The 1980 Bombay Priests Synod recognized SCCs as necessary to build community in city parishes characterized by individualism, impersonal relationships, superficial religious practice, and unconcern for others.
[37] It has been suggested that to revitalize the Church in the Western world, neighborhood communities should become places where the Bible is reflected upon and applied, the faith shared and celebrated, in a more democratic rather than hierarchical structure.