Poor communities across Latin America are experiencing devastating repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis. Several countries must respond to the pandemic with collapsed regional and municipal health care systems, on the back of an economic crisis that has already had a disastrous impact on the most vulnerable. Basic ecclesial communities, or CEBs as they are known from their abbreviation in Spanish and Portuguese, are stepping in to help. 

These are small neighborhood groups linked, especially in Latin America, to the Catholic Church. They meet to reflect on scripture and apply what they learn in practice to their specific situations. CEBs proliferated after the Vatican II Council with the call for lay Catholics to play more active roles.

CEBs have been able to fill some of the gaps where both the official Catholic Church and governments in some Latin American countries have fallen short. In El Salvador, CEBs are gathering food and money as they anticipate a potential hunger crisis. In Mexico, the CEB network is a dependable system of mutual aid helping distribute food and facilitating access to state assistance. In Argentina ecclesial groups have been helping the homeless and people living in poor neighborhoods.  

CEBs are in a distinctive position to respond to COVID-19 and help vulnerable communities in Latin America. Born out of transformations within Catholicism, alongside the development of liberation theology, CEBs now form an impressive movement within the Latin American Church. Starting in small, often poor communities that did not have priests, CEBs were formed as lay people gathered to read the Bible and relate Scripture to their own lives. CEBs developed over time and have a history of responding to the needs and social concerns of people in Latin America. The CEB movement is now structured and well organized in places where it is active. They are thus well positioned to reach out to vulnerable people in solidarity and collaboration, providing a potentially vital lifeline for many poor communities. 

(Based on: May 4, 2020, America article)