Between the terrifying spectrum of communism and the social inequalities: theory and practice of the Social Centers of the Society of Jesus in Latin America (1950-1966)

The article discusses the activities of the Centers of Social Investigation and Action (CIAS) of the Society of Jesus in Latin America in their first generation, between 1950 and 1966. Assuming that the formulations and concrete practices of the CIAS played an important role in the transition between Social Catholicism of the first half of the 20th century and the Liberation Christianity that was systematized from the 1970s onwards, it demonstrates, based on the analysis of documentary sources from various archives of the Society of Jesus in Europe and Latin America and the discussion with the intellectual production of the time and with specialized literature, how the conceptions and actions of the Jesuit social centers, at first marked by a strong anti-communist stance, ended up taking a posture of denunciation and of fight against the growing social inequalities.