Arns always encouraged the development of the base community movement that derived from commitment to a preferential option for the oppressed and the poor. He encouraged religious orders in São Paulo to transfer their energies from middle class schools and hospitals in central areas of the city to the millions of marginalised people living on the periphery. With respect to the requirement that Catholics practice abstinence on certain days, that is, refrain from eating meat, Arns told the poor that on such a day "if they can find meat to eat, which is rare, they should eat it, and do some good work to mark the day, because not eating meat is not the point." He defended his position by saying that "Canon law gives me full power to dispense people from abstinence; there is no problem."