The mission of the church in Brazil to the peripheries

a sociotheological reflection

Abstract

This article aims to address the mission of the Roman Catholic Church in the peripheries and the need for the Church's presence in these places. In this sense, it is necessary to think about a pastoral methodology in line with a Church that must go out to the peripheries in order to reaffirm its evangelizing mission. The general process of urbanization has influenced the emergence of the peripheries and the social configuration that these places have assumed over time. This article exposes and develops this theme based on sociological and geographical foundations about the theme of the periphery, based on specialists on the subject, such as the geographer Milton Santos, and also based on the theological and pastoral proposals of Pope Francis. The main themes developed in this article are: 1) Conceptual and etymological clarifications of the term periphery; 2) The social construction of the peripheries; 3) The periphery as a place of absences and presences; 4) For a Church going forth to the peripheries. The present text is based on a study methodology that has as its main source the bibliographical analysis, of hermeneutic-interpretative nature, a very usual method in the theological field. It will be noted that today, with the exponential growth of peripheral regions, the Church cannot neglect these spaces as “new areopaguses”, that is, privileged ecclesial, social and historical places for the proclamation of the Gospel.