Our Lady of Lourdes Parish

Description and purpose

The Basic Ecclesial Community (BEC) is part of the concrete realization of the communitarian model of the Church (as Communion and as People of God) promoted by the Second Vatican Council. The communities are considered as a new way of "being the Church"— the Church at the grassroots, in the neighborhood and villages.

The earliest communities emerged in Brazil and in the Philippines in the late 1960s and later spread to Africa, Asia and in recent times in Australia and North America.

In the BECs, the members are called to live in communion with the Triune God, with one another, with their pastors. They actively participate in Christ's prophetic mission by listening to the Word of God, proclaiming it and giving witness to it. They are called to announce the message of total salvation, peace and justice. They are to denounce the evil and all its manifestation in society - the idolatry of wealth and power, violence, injustices, the culture of death.