BEC: A Failed Intentional Community?

Is the Basic Ecclesial Community a failed intentional community?

I will attempt to answer this question based on my doctoral dissertation which corollary treated this question.

I am writing this essay not from a religious or ecclesiological perspective but from a social science viewpoint.

Thus, I will not invoke theological principles or try to spiritualize this phenomenon.

Instead, I will discuss the Basic Ecclesial Community (BEC) using the lens of social science.

As such, it is a grassroots faith-based organization. Its advocacy includes, although not exclusively, social justice, poverty alleviation, renewal of the social order and political involvement.

Just like any grassroots organization it conducts weekly meetings, social awareness seminars, and similar education programs that promotes the ideals of the BEC.

The idealized image of the BEC is that it is “a new way of being church” where the basic realities of being church is experienced by its members.

It is described as the “church in the neighborhood” and “parish in miniature.”

The BEC has been the center piece of pastoral and evangelization efforts of the past, particularly during the time of Bishop Antonio Fortich.

At present, there were many efforts to revive or at least renew the BEC.

However, the question as to how the BEC is now compared to the BEC in the past is a valid point for inquiry.

During my research, I interviewed several significant respondents who were leaders of the BEC during the time of Fortich.

They identified elements which they perceived to have contributed to the success of the BEC at that time.

1. A Shared Purpose. This is the unifying force behind the BEC. It allows people to identify with others who are undergoing the same experience.

In the case of Negros, the alleged social injustices committed by the rich landowners towards their hacienda workers.

Furthermore, it was aggravated by the Martial Law Regime and the Sugar Industry Crisis which have reduced the people to abject poverty.

The Church and the BEC became their refuge. Of course, not every Catholic parishioner is a member of the BEC.

2. Financial And Material Resources. Whether we admit it or not people need to have bread on the table.

The BEC during the time of Bishop Fortich provided for an additional source of livelihood.

Various aids from abroad overflowed to the BEC.

There were livelihood projects, scholarship programs, and other financial assistance provided to the members of the BEC.

Additionally, non- governmental organizations or NGOs were organized which provided for more influx of aids and resources for both leaders and members.

Admit it or not, money is important in community organizing.

If you will not give money or food stuff to people, they will not come.

If there are no available financial resources, leaders will have difficulty calling for people to rally around a certain cause or advocacy.

In fact, if there is patronage politics, there is also patronage evangelization.

3. An Invested Leadership. A significant number of clergymen under the leadership of Bishop Fortich invested time and efforts in community organizing.

With this human investment and material resources the BEC has become the grassroots units of the diocese.

Members were easily organized to rally on the streets.

The priests are immersed in the reality of the grassroots since they were spending a lot of time with them.

4. The Goal for Social Transformation. As a grassroots organization it advocates social transformation through active political involvement, social mobilization, activism, and other similar methods.

It emphasized that the social order should reflect the Gospel values and that a just society is a product of authentic Christianity in action.

This is a powerful motivator.

The BEC during the Fortich episcopacy has produced several “martyrs” who were imprisoned, persecuted, and even murdered due to their advocacy and convictions.

In fact, it can even be said that “social transformation” is not merely an advocacy but a “spirituality.”

Whether the blood of these “martyrs of the BEC” seeded the future of the BEC or has their memories been relegated to the forgotten stories of the past, your guess is as good as mine.

When the social situation is no longer threatening a significant number of people, when funds and aids from abroad dwindle to a trickle, when the leadership’s attention was diverted to another method of evangelization and people became more interested in personal gains rather than in communal aspirations, then it sounded the death knell for the BEC as it was known before.

To be continued…