 Quoting the Document of Aparecida, Francis stated that BECs allow people “to attain greater knowledge of the Word of God, a greater social commitment in the name of the Gospel, for the birth of new forms of lay service and adult education in the faith.” He had chaired the committee that drafted the Aparecida document.Francis also recalled his more recent statement to the whole church, that base communities “bring a new evangelizing fervor and a new capacity for dialogue with the world whereby the Church is renewed.”

The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1904) established a pattern of the United States imposing a capitalist model of development on Latin America, often to the detriment of the poorest peoples.