‘The Church is the Neighbourhood’: a popular education project in the 22 de Enero Neighborhood (La Matanza) and its connection with the liberation movement of historical Jesus

Abstract

In the context of the recent inauguration of the Open School “Beato Gabriel Longueville” located in the 22 de Enero Neighborhood, in the Partido de La Matanza (Buenos Aires, Argentina), this article proposes an analysis of the popular education project driven by members of the parish “Beato Enrique Angelelli y Mártires Riojanos”, from an approach within the sociology of religion that aims to understand the current link between the Catholic church and the community, taking into account the literature developed around the liberation movement of the historical Jesus. Based on the testimonies collected in an interview with Father Daniel Echeverría and educator Patricio Bolton, main drivers of the project, regarding the work carried out by the parish in the community’s daily life and specifically in relation to the educational project, we constructed an analysis that establishes similarities and differences between the praxis of the Jesus movement and the concrete organization of a community marked by a history of struggle and resistance.