Property and collective poverty in san Ignacio and Suárez

Abstract

This study, from the early years 1960, and unpublished until now, is about the poverty and the property in the Jesuit tradition. After a brief philosophic-social introduction and a historic-juridical approach to the problem of the collective poverty in the Church, he tackles collective poverty. Next, the issue of the ecclesial possessions is treated and also of the poverty in the Society of Jesus, to come to treat in successive sections about Saint Ignatius’ thought on the collective poverty and the thought of Francisco Suárez. Some brief conclusions, referred to the first sections not specifically Jesuits, conclude the article. Starting from the spirituality and from the thought of Saint Ignatius, contained in the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, and in some of his proceedings, and from the doctrinal positions of Francisco Suárez on the occasion of the foundation of the royal Jesuit College of Salamanca, and also facing the 3rd General Congregation, in 1608, the author comes to the conclusion that both Saint Ignatius and Suárez understand poverty, and related to it, the property, according to the common teaching of the Church of the time, although overcoming the tension between institutionalists and functionalists. To both, poverty in the Society of Jesus is a charismatic institution, in which the possessions are conceived only as instruments of God. To that end, -to be mere divine instruments,- are oriented both the Ignatian spirituality and the suarezian thinking.