The following is a selection of documents from the Catholic Church hierarchy that encourage the building of Christian community. It is only a small selection of the documents that could be presented. It is designed to give a "sampler" of what has been said. An additional selection can be found in the book I edited Covenant Community and Church (Manila: Word of Joy, 1993). SELECTION ONE: The Medellin Documents 1969 From CELAM, The Church in the Present-Day Transformation of Latin America in the Light of the Council (Washington, DC: The Latin American Bureau, USCC, 1970). This is the selection that was in the original edition of Building Christian Communities. The Medellin Conference was an important meeting of the Catholic bishops of Latin America and it issued a "pastoral plan" for the development of the Church in Latin America. The encouragement of the Medellin conference was historically one of the most significant impulses for the development of Christian communities in the Catholic Church. A. BASIC CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES "10. The Christian ought to find the living of the communion to which he has been called in his 'basic community,' that is to say, in a community, local or environmental, which corresponds to the reality of a homogeneous group and whose size allows for personal fraternal contact among its members.1 Consequently, the Church's pastoral efforts must be oriented toward the transormation of these communities into a 'family of God,' beginning by making itself present among them as leaven by means of a nucleus, although it be small, which creates a community of faith, hope and charity. Thus the Christian basic community is the first and fundamental ecclesiastical nucleus, which on its own level must make itself responsible for the richness and expansion of the faith, as well as the cult which is its expression. This community becomes then the initial cell of the ecclesiastical structures and the focus of evangelization, and it currently serves as the most important source of human advancement and development." "13. The foregoing exposition leads us to make of the parish a pastoral whole, vivifying and unifying the basic communities. Thus the parish has to decentralize its pastoral action with respect to locations, functions and persons, precisely in order to 'reduce to unity all the human diversities which are found in it and to insert them into the universality of the Church.'" - (From: 15. Joint Pastoral Planning) SECTION TWO: A Pastoral Statement 1984 From A Pastoral Statement on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, National Conference of Catholic Bishops (Washington, D.C.: 1984, pp. 6-9, 13-14). The encouragement of the Catholic bishops in the United States was another early and important impulse to the community movement. They mainly gave that encouragement in the context of statements on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, because that has been where such communities developed in the U.S. The first statement was made in 1975, but this selection is the most developed statement. B. POSITIONS OF LEADERSHIP IN CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES "12. The essential element for the existence of Christian basic communities are their leaders or directors. These can be priests, deacons, men or women religious, or laymen. It is desirable that they belong to the community which they animate." - (From: 15. Joint Pastoral Planning) SECTION THREE: Christifideles Laici 1988 From The Lay Members of Christ's Faithful People, John Paul II (Boston: Daughters of St. Paul, 1988, pp. 70-73). This is perhaps the most authoritative encouragement given by the Catholic hierarchy and should promote a new growth of communities in the Church. "33a) An indispensable factor in the formation of deacons2 will be the reciprocal interaction between them and the community. That is to say, that the candidate attains to the fullness of his formation by acting within the community, while the latter contributes to this formation..." "b) The first concern of those responsible for the formation of deacons is to prepare them to become capable of fostering new communities of Christians, and encouraging existing ones so that the mystery of the Church be brought to fruition in them to an ever greater degree." - (From: 13. The Formation of the Clergy) SECTION FOUR: Communities Serving Humanity 1989 From Communities Serving Humanity, the Pastoral Plan of the Catholic Church in Southern Africa (Pretoria: South African Catholic Bishops' Conference, 1989). This provides an additional illustration of regional hierarchies encouraging the development of Christian communities. The plan cites the first edition of Building Christian Communities as a resource (p. 37). Our plan is to be a Church which is a true community, where all feel they are brothers and sisters in Christ. The first aim of our Pastoral Plan is building COMMUNITY (p. 7). Some parishes are quick to say "We are a community", even though they are far from this ideal. There is no parish that can be complacent in this matter, no parish that can see no reason for fostering community. We therefore urge every community to examine the extent to which it is a community and to take concrete steps to develop community relationships (p. 18-19). Our Pastoral Plan calls for an increase of community building so that our parishes can become Communities Serving Humanity. The most intense form of community building in the parish is the establishment of Small Christian Communities, but this is also a demanding form (p 37). SECTION FIVE: The Second Plenary Council of the Philippines 1992 From Acts and Decrees of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, (Manila: Catholilc bishops' Conference of the Philippines 1992). This contains another example of a regional group of bishops calling for the development of Christian communities. It is perhaps the fullest "pastoral plan" for any nation and features Christian communities in a prominent way. Faith gathers us into a community. Faith is communitarian (p. 28). In community a Christian grows in faith. We are called as individuals, and each one must give a personal response. But Christ calls us to form a Christian community. He wants the Church to be "a communion of life, love and truth" (LG 9), "a community of faith, hope and charity" (LG 8). Our vision of the Church as communion, participation, and mission, about the Church as a priestly, prophetic, and kingly people and as a Church of the poor - a Church that is renewed - is today finding expression in an ecclesial movement. That is the movement to foster Basic Ecclesial Communities. They are small communities of Christians, usually of families who gather together around the Word of God and the Eucharist... Usually emerging at the grassroots among poor farmers and workers, Basic Ecclesial communities consciously strive to integrate their faith and their daily life... In many dioceses today, Basic Ecclesial Communities are a pastoral priority. Though there are many other forms of small faith communities today, Basic Ecclesial Communities are visibly a significant expression of ecclesial renewal (pp. 52-53). The Cursillos de Cristiandad, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, lay covenant communities, the Neo-catechumenal Way, The Christian Family Movement, Marriage Encounter, Focolare, the Movement for a Better World, the Parish Renewal Experience and other similar movements have helped greatly in the renewal of the local Church. They are able to impart to their members Catholic teaching, a sense of fraternal belonging, a love of The Word of God, and a love of prayer. They are instruments of genuine conversion, venues of life-changing encounters with the Lord. They are schools of evangelistic zeal... Priests should welcome, encourage, and support these renewal movements, whenever they could be led into the mainstream of parish and diocesan pastoral priorities and programs. DECREES Article 109. Basic Ecclesial Communities under various names and forms - BCCs, small Christian communities, small faith communities, small faith communities, covenant communities - must be vigorously promoted for the full living of the Christian vocation in both urban and rural areas. SELECTION SIX: The Fifth Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference 1990 From Statement of the Fifth Plenary Aseembly (ed. FABC, Bandung, Indonesia, 1990). This is one of the stronger statements by a group of Catholic bishops, and it presents the need for communities within the context of a new vision of church life. The Church in Asia will have to be a communion of communities, where laity, Religious and clergy recognize and accept each other as sisters and brothers. They are called together by the word of God which, regarded as a quasi-sacramental presence of the Risen Lord, leads them to form small Christian communities (e.g., neighborhood groups, Basic Ecclesial Communities and "covenant" communities). There, they pray and share together the Gospel of Jesus, living it in their daily lives as they support one another and work together, united as they are "in one mind and heart." |
