Controversial ‘Creed of the Ecclesial Base Communities’ included at Mass in Brazil

On Sept. 7, Bishop José Valdeci Santos Mendes of Brejo, Maranhão, Brazil, celebrated Mass as part of a national Cry of the Excluded event.

During the Mass, the " Creed of the Ecclesial Base Communities ” (known as CEBs, by their synonym in Portuguese) was read. This creed, developed in 2016, professes belief in “a God/Goddess present in the diverse experiences of the communities: a God who is close, a liberating and revolutionary God, a God who is a member of the CEBs, who works and struggles just as Jesus of Nazareth did.”

Following the distribution of the Eucharist but before the final blessing, the bishop — who chairs the Episcopal Commission for Social-Transformative Action of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CEPAST-CNBB, by its Portuguese acronym) — introduced the referenced creed. He called it a “supplication from the youth of Latin America, who stand before God asking him to come to meet us,” and entrusted the creed’s recitation to two young men.

“We do not believe in a static, patriarchal, clerical, and hierarchical Church,” stated the text read by the young men at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Conception. “We believe in an inclusive,…