Comunidades eclesiais de base e teologia da libertação: experiências, memórias e resistências. (MANAUS, 1980/1990)

Abstract

The historical problem that constitutes the core of this work is to understand the experiences and narratives of people who worked in the Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs) in Manaus, between the 1980s and 1990s, in a context of the final years of the civil-military dictatorship ( 1964-1985) and the beginning of the process of political redemocratization in the country. In a first moment, we will do a sizing and analysis of the paths traced by the Catholic Church, mainly those that announced the constitution of a Liberating Theology of Latin America. In particular, the facts that marked these experiences such as the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the II Episcopal Conference of Medellín (1968) and the III Conference of Puebla (1979). We noticed that the beginning of the experience of CEBs in Brazil, took place from clashes both in the field of action of the Church and outside it, influencing the political disputes and social transformations experienced in the 1970s and 1980s. trajectories and social actions of the interviewed subjects and analyze, through the narratives, documents of the CNBB and the Archdiocese of Manaus, how the work of the CEBs became a priority, through biblical circles, theological formations, catechesis in the periphery and in the streets. And finally, we will highlight the construction of new subjects, who, from the pastoral perspectives of Liberation Theology, are organized in social movements, alternative projects of society and in political articulations in the city. That said, I emphasize at this point the experiences of important men and women in the defense and maintenance of these struggles, having supported this research work in methodology and theoretical referrals of Oral History, as well as a field of documentary sources such as (CNBB reports and CEBs, field notebook, and Catholic Church documents). Thus, as a result of this research, the processes by which the CEBs in the city of Manaus formed territories of memories, transforming spaces, fighting for the expansion of rights and citizenship.