Reference:
Acta Romana Societatia Iesu
Vol. XIX, Fasc. III, 1986, page 792-793 
Rome, 1987

5.4 A particular concern for the poor

Reflecting on the actual situation of today’s world of responding to the call of Christ who had a special love and concern for the poor, the church and the Society of Jesus have made a “preferential option” for the poor. This includes those without economic means, the handicapped, the marginalized and all those who are, in any sense, unable to live a life of full human dignity. In Jesuit education, this option is reflected both in the students that are admitted and in the type of formation that is given.

Jesuit schools do not exist for any one class of students. Ignatius accepted schools only when they were completely endowed so that education could be available to everyone. He insisted that special facilities for housing the poor be a part of every school foundation that he approved and that teachers give special attention to the needs of poor students. Today, although the situation differs greatly from country to country and the specific criteria for selecting students depends on “circumstances of place and person”, every Jesuit school does what it can to make Jesuit education available to everyone, including the poor and the disadvantaged. Financial assistance to those in need and reduction of costs whenever possible are means toward making this possible. Moreover, Jesuit schools provide academic and counseling assistance to those in need of it so that all can profit from the education being offered.

In order for parents, especially the poor, to exercise freedom of choice in the education of their children, Jesuit schools join in movements that promote free educational opportunity for all. “The recovery of genuine equality of opportunity and genuine freedom in the area of education is a concern that falls within the scope of our struggle for promotion of justice”.

More basic than the type of students admitted is the type of formation that is given. In Jesuit education, the values which the school community communicates, gives witness to, and makes operative in school policies and structures, the values which flow into the school climate, are those values that promote a special concern for those men and women who are without the means to live in human dignity. In this case, the poor form the context of Jesuit education: “Our educational planning needs to be made in function of the poor, from the perspective of the poor”.

The Jesuit school provides students with opportunities for contact with the poor and for service to them, both in the school and in outside service projects, to enable these students to learn to love all as brothers and sisters in the human community, and also in order to come to a better understanding of the causes of poverty.

To be educational, this contact is joined to reflection. The promotion of justice in the curriculum has as one concrete objective an analysis of the causes of poverty.