Participação libertadora, CEBs e comunidades camponesas em Montes Claros-MG

Abstract

St. Sebastian s Parish, located in the municipality of Montes Claros, in the State of Minas Gerais, characterizes itself by its planning and by its apostolic pastoral work, directing its efforts towards integrating faith and life. The ´80s and ´90s were marked by intense rural worker participation in the Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) and by popular education with a view to human, and therefore community, promotion. This case study, of an interpretative nature, sought to verify, by participative observation and by interview transcripts, if the manner of the Jesuits intervention, through the BECs, was educational (with popular appeal) or tutorial (with an authoritarian hallmark). In addition it sought to investigate if there was a relationship between participation in parochial activities and those developed in the associations, in the trade union and in the community itself, as well as if this involvement favored the emergence of practices of sustainable development in the scenario researched. The answers to the questions were given by the social agents themselves, that is, domestic producers, residents, the Jesuits, pastoral workers, and interpreted by the investigator. Educational intervention for social participation in the communities provided personal, community and regional growth, contributing to development derived from people s involvement as protagonists in the solution of their problems in all areas, and in the search for sustainable alternatives to economic models that exclude development.