BACK
TO THE FUTURE? EUROPE LOOKS TO THE BASE COMMUNITIES FOR INSPIRATION.
At the point where many commentators
in Europe had been announcing the death of the Basic Christian Communities
suddenly they have made a dramatic re-appearance in the very lecture theatre in
Tübingen where the young professor
Josef Ratzinger delivered his renowned Introduction to Christianity course. The
Catholic Theology Faculty of the University has recently co-hosted an
International Symposium entitled, In the
World of Today? The Church on her way in Basic Christian Communities, along
with the German aid agencies Adveniat and Missio.
So great was the demand for places
that the organisers were forced to move the venue at the last minute to their
largest auditorium, well known to the present Pope, and though his younger
version was favourably quoted by the present professorial staff it wasn’t clear
what Benedict XVI would have made of this renewed interest in base communities
in his home country. From 17th-20th January 2013 people
came from all over Germany as well as Switzerland and Austria to meet with
exponents of the base communities from across the developing world.
The context common to all the
participants was: ageing and declining numbers of clergy, the merging and
suppression of parishes, a loss of youth and families from congregations, a
growing number of Catholics who feel disconnected from and disaffected with the
Church, and an increasing sense that the clergy are cracking under the burden they
are being asked to bear. This crisis has created among some of the faithful a
desire to look outward for inspiration. Many commented that they felt a lack of
leadership and direction coming from clergy and bishops. The aid agencies have
been drawn into this ecclesial vacuum and for some time now have been sowing
seeds of hope.
This reality has become a creative
space where after decades of one-way traffic transferring aid from the wealthy
and generous German dioceses to the churches of the developing world, there is
now an in-coming gift of ecclesial inspiration from the thousands of base
communities in the partner churches of the South. Fr Bernd Klaschka, President
of Adveniat, saw this as an opportunity for Germany to experience itself as a
world Church, genuinely enriched by this mutual sharing. Dr Klaus Krämer, President of Missio, claimed during the opening
speeches that base communities were now on the local agenda in a big way.
Prof Dr Paulo Suess, a priest of the
diocese of Augsburg but living in the Amazonian region of Brazil since 1966, gave
an inspirational keynote address on the first day in which he traced the
negative impact of European influence on the base communities following the II
Vatican Council. He called for this ‘fear’ of the organised poor from sectors
of the Church to be converted into fear of the ‘social irrelevance of the
faith’. The flourishing of the base communities after the Council, he said,
took the institutional Church by surprise and pre-conciliar elements in
European hierarchies and the Vatican attacked those supporting and encouraging
them particularly in Latin America.
But perhaps what was remarkable in
this Symposium was the simple fact that representatives of those base
communities were sharing their experiences with a European Church more fearful
now of its own crisis and challenges and therefore more open to external
advice. The majority German audience were treated to a series of authentic reflections
upon the global phenomenon of base communities, delivered by three women
leaders from Latin America, Asia and Africa - an impressive statement in itself
not lost on the participants – all of whom happened to have doctorates in
theology.
Sr Socorro Martinez from Mexico said
that the base communities were an on-going active process and ‘a precious gift
from the Holy Spirit’; Estella Padilla from the Philippines shared that at the
core of the base communities was an ethos of dialogue that emerges as a
response to the gospel and is directed towards the poor, to cultures and to religions.
‘Can we re-imagine the Church’ she asked ‘as the servant-sacrament of harmony’?
Sr Josée Ngalula from the
Democratic Republic of the Congo revealed that the base communities were a
response to basic African intuitions and a desire to root Christianity in an
African reality. Base communities we were told are flourishing all across the
developing world. Each of these women in sharing the stories of faith from
their poor communities profoundly impacted on the audience with their wisdom
and the depth of their reflections.
Many of the almost 250 people present
were genuinely impressed with the episcopal contributions of Bp Thomas Dabre
(Pune, India) and Cardinal Carlos Rodriguez (Tegucigalpa, Honduras). Both gave
enthusiastic support to the base communities and the Cardinal referred to them
as ‘the great fruit of Vatican II’ which in giving new hope to the whole Church
were a ‘valued and positive experience’. Bp Dabre said that the base communities
were ‘endorsed and legislated as a way of pastoral ministry and Christian life
in India’.
Despite the moving testimony given
about the base communities many people were sceptical about how they could be
implemented in Germany even though a number of dioceses have already made a
start. There is confusion about what they really are and do, symbolised by a
question from one Filipina migrant in Germany who wanted to know if her
fellow-countrymen and women meeting together for devotional purposes formed a
base community.
In failing to answer her question
adequately the Symposium failed to define clearly enough terminology that was being
used interchangeably and indiscriminately throughout the conference; Base
Ecclesial Communities are not the same thing as Small Christian Communities,
though they have many aspects in common. This is indeed an important subject for
clarification and the presence of senior academics from such a prestigious
theology faculty means that this question and others raised during the conference
will undoubtedly be explored in future events.
It is critical that Germany, in the
struggle to implement their version of basic Christian communities, gets as complete
a picture as possible of the truly radical option that the base communities present
to the Church. Indisputably the organisers here are to be congratulated in
having brought together, probably for the first time, such an impressive
gathering of open-mined and searching Europeans with an inspirational
collection of practitioners of another experience of being Church from the
developing South.
There is indeed much to learn here
and much to debate. An image that seemed to resonate with many of the participants
was the idea that Europe was living through an ecclesial winter and Cardinal
Rodriguez was asked what advice he might give. He smilingly responded that spring
would follow winter and that ‘spring will come from the base’. That seemed to
suggest that what would come still remained buried beneath the snow, was
under-ground and that in awaiting its arrival with hope we should turn our
attention to those at the base, the majority of ordinary people and start
listening to them and making their concerns and agenda ours too.
Perhaps this very Symposium was the
first green shoot of a small but significant process that in some unimagined
future would blossom. It has definitely generated an energy that will ensure
that the journey continues. Whilst recognising that we in Europe owe a debt of
gratitude to those responsible for organising this event, it is to be hoped
that they realise that experiments such as these mean that the eyes of many in
the Church will be watching, and that not all those eyes will be friendly.
1,258 words.
Fr Gerry Proctor MBE MPhil
His research thesis entitled A Commitment to Neighbourhood – Base
Ecclesial Communities in Global Perspective is awaiting publication at
Liverpool Hope University.
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