Poverty

The 36th General Congregation in 2016 had mandated Father General, Arturo Sosa, to implement revisions of the Statutes on Religious Poverty in the Society of Jesus and the Instruction on the Administration of Goods. For this purpose, he appointed a Commission...

How can one live poorly when one has access to many intellectual and material resources? Is the distinction between “living poorly” individually, as a religious, and “using the costly resources of today’s world” collectively, within the framework of apostolic works or projects, sufficiently clear?

Fr. Renato Zecchin is the novice master of the Australian Province of the Society of Jesus. When asked to share about his vision of the Jesuit way of living religious poverty, he recalls the moment when he entered the novitiate in 1971, and had the desire to be sent...

Fr. Ignatius Tete, an Indian Jesuit, is based at St. Stanislaus College in Hazaribag. Since 2011, he has been the instructor for Tertianship, the last stage of formation that Jesuits go through before their last vows.

Herbert Keller is a Jesuit from the United States who teaches theology and works in pastoral ministry at Scranton Preparatory School in Pennsylvania. Throughout his apostolic life in the Society of Jesus, he has served in the field of education...

Osaretin Jonah was a forensic chemist. It seemed like he had a promising future, professionally, in his country, Nigeria. But major life changes forced him to rediscover his place in the world.

The enormous food waste! This is what Jorge Serrano thinks of when you bring up poverty in conversation. He is a Colombian Jesuit who oversees a shrine and a few parishes in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) at the moment.

Sometimes Grégoire Catta ponders what the vow of poverty entails for a Jesuit like him. Living in the city of Paris, he divides his time between Saint Denis, a peri-urban neighborhood that is among the poorest in the region, and the French Bishops’ Conference, where he works.

As a young Jesuit, Brother John Purackal had witnessed the misery and hunger experienced by the poor during the famine in the State of Bihar, India and the committed service rendered by the generous and dedicated American Jesuit Missionaries.

Martin Abad Santos is a Filipino Jesuit who has been working for the past twenty years in East Timor, a newly independent country that faces many challenges.

Travis Russell is a Jesuit from the United States, currently working at the JCCU, in Washington D.C., as criminal justice policy advisor for the Office of Justice and Ecology.

Thierry is a young Jesuit from Burundi who is currently studying theology at Hekima College in Nairobi, Kenya. How can a Jesuit of his generation, and an African at that, live the vow of religious poverty and talk about it?