Agents of Change: The Roles of Priests, Sisters, and Lay Workers in the Grassroots Catholic Church in Brazil

Abstract

There has been an underlying assumption in much of the research on the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil that activism toward social and religious change is stimulated by the church hierarchy. That assumption is called into question by the present research which examined five dioceses in the northern state of Maranhao. Evidence is presented here to show that, even in dioceses where the bishop is not supportive of innovation, priests, sisters, and lay church workers are organizing base ecclesial communities (CEBs) that help to facilitate the empowerment of poor people. This article also questions the urban bias of much of the research on Brazilian CEBs, the majority of which are located in rural areas, and suggests that further studies need to be conducted in rural base communities in different parts of Latin America.