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CHAPTER V\u000ATHE SOCIAL ROLE AND PRESENCE OF THE LAY PEOPLE\u000ABefore the 1950s there was a clear distinction between the laity and the clergy in the context of the Catholic Church in Latin America. The clergy held all the privileges with regard to liturgy, bible study, and the development of the mission. The Catholic Church also was a rigid institution, subject to the clergy and ecclesiastical structures. Lay people did not know much about the bible; they hardly participated in the liturgy and had no responsibility in missions. Their presence and role almost passed unnoticed. The role of the laity was no more significant than that of acolytes at Sunday mass.\u000AAs mass was given in Latin the members could not learn much about their faith. It was only after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) that the Catholic Church gave more attention to the membership as the people of God. Although certain models are still followed at the institutional, hierarchical doctrinal and liturgical levels, winds of change are blowing especially in their vision of the role of the Catholic laity.\u000AThe Jesuit Ricardo Benda\u00F1a says that the renewal brought the following changes in Guatemala: they started to give mass in Spanish and some Mayan languages, the liturgy was changed a bit, they stimulated bible reading, they trained catechists, and they launched new communities such as the movement of the \u2018Delegates of the Word\u2019 a group from Honduras which spread to other countries (2001.51-52, 60). Spykman says that they helped rural communities to pray, understand the bible and reflect about social problems (1988:188-189). The new way of doing church and theology took on different features. Among these, the theology of Liberation, the Delegates of the Word and the Base Church communities [CEBs] were the most notorious. These groups played an important role in the processes of training, reflexion and the development of action and thought among Catholic people, in favour of the social liberation of Latin America. The CEBs propelled evangelization, pastoral accompaniment and theological reflexion about the mission of the\u000Achurch, especially among Ladinos in countries like Brazil and Chile (Spykman 1988:190- 236\u000A