The Jesuit Reductions (Reducciones)
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This was also a period of time wherein the Jesuits implemented early Communistic-style measures in their rule over the South American peoples.
“One of the Roman Church-State’s most influential statements on economic matters is the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, On the the Condition of the working Classes. In this encyclical the Roman Church-State allied herself with the proletariat, which in Marxism is the great and final enemy of the capitalist order. The encyclical’s Marxism is so blatant that one Roman Catholic writer declared that ‘much of encyclical (Rerum Novarum) appeared only to repeat in more orthodox language what Marx had said ten years before’….Indeed, there are paragraphs, if not pages, in The Communist Manifesto that might have been written by the pope…” (“Ecclesiastical Megalomania,” John W. Robbins)
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In Paraguay, the Jesuits created a unique fusion of religious and military authority. To protect the Guarani from slave traders, Jesuits organized and armed native militias. These settlements functioned as a strategic buffer zone where Jesuit "priest-colonels" managed both spiritual survival and the physical defense of the frontier.
"Reductions in Paraguay in the 17th and 18th centuries, which were a series of communes in which Jesuit priest exercised authority over the natives there. In that environment, the Jesuit Order maintained control over a group of South American Guarani Indians, who they educated and trained to work on their behalf, generating goods that were later sold in the markets of Europe."See the full article here
Reductions Examined
The Jesuit reducciones (reductions) were highly organized mission settlements established primarily in South America (especially in the Province of Paraguay, which included parts of modern-day Argentina and Brazil) starting in the early 17th century. These settlements represented a unique fusion of religious, social, and military authority designed to further the Catholic faith while exercising profound control over indigenous populations.
The Reductions of Paraguay
- Purpose and Urban Planning: The primary goal of the reductions was to gather nomadic indigenous people, such as the Guarani, into permanent settlements to prevent them from lapsing in their faith, to provide constant religious guidance, and to protect them from slave dealers. The settlements were designed using a European gridiron pattern, focused around a central plaza containing a church, college, and cemetery.
- Military Fortification and Army: The reductions were heavily fortified with walls, palisades, and ditches, forming what were essentially "fortresses of God". To defend these settlements, the Jesuits created a formidable standing army of indigenous infantry and cavalry, structured into military companies. Jesuit military chaplains used their mathematical knowledge to drill the troops, maintain orderly lines of march, and set up military camps. These indigenous armies were highly effective, defeating slave traders and frequently being called upon by Spanish colonial governors to put down rebellions or fight pirates.
- Economic and Social Control: The reductions operated as tightly controlled, self-sustaining economies. The indigenous people were kept in a state of strict tutelage and passive obedience, delivering the produce of their daily labor to the Jesuits, who in turn distributed supplies. The Jesuits generated immense wealth from these missions by mass-producing and exporting commodities like the "Paraguay herb" (tea), cotton, sugar, and cattle hides. While this provided safety and prosperity for the natives, critics and political enemies later denounced the reductions as an independent, "despotic" state that utilized native "slavery" and illicit commerce to enrich the Jesuit Order.
Similar Tactics Used by the Jesuits Globally The strategy of using military pragmatism, social engineering, and targeted influence to achieve religious goals was replicated by the Jesuits in other theaters around the world:
- Fortifications and Militias in the Philippines: Just as they had armed the Guarani in South America, Jesuits in the Philippines took on direct military leadership to protect their missions from Muslim and Protestant pirates. Jesuits like Melchor de Vera, who was "well informed concerning architecture, especially of the military kind," designed and supervised the construction of stone fortresses, such as the Real Fuerza de San José. The Jesuit missionary often acted as the local military commander, issuing orders for fort construction, providing cannons and ammunition, presiding over militia discipline, and commanding war canoes in person.
- Military Technology in China: In China, the Jesuits used their mastery of mathematics and science to gain the favor of the Ming and Qing emperors, which in turn secured them the freedom to conduct missionary work. The Jesuits acted as designers and manufacturers of powerful cannons for the Chinese military. The Jesuit Joseph-Marie Amiot even masterminded the construction of artillery fortifications around Peking and produced the first French translation of the ancient Chinese military treatise, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.
- Stationary Missions in North America: In Canada, Jesuits employed the tactic of settling fiercely independent, nomadic Native American tribes into stationary missions, such as the one at Sillery. The goal was to replace their wandering lifestyle with peaceful industry and a "passive and childlike obedience" under the absolute spiritual direction of the priests.
- Cultural "Accommodation" (India and China): To infiltrate and influence foreign societies, the Jesuits employed a tactic of extreme cultural adaptation. In China, the famous Jesuit Matteo Ricci abandoned Western norms to dress in the silk robes and tall black hat of a Chinese Mandarin, blending in with the elite. In India, Roberto de Nobili allowed his delegates to wear golden earrings and yellow tunics to appeal to the noble classes, adapting Catholic proselytizing to fit local hierarchical structures.
- Education and the Confessional in Europe: In Europe, the Jesuits applied their systematized control to the Catholic ruling elite. They established a vast network of colleges and seminaria nobilium (seminaries for nobles) designed to train the future political and military leaders of Europe. Coupling this with their role as the primary confessors to kings and princes, the Jesuits created an unmatched intelligence-gathering network. By controlling the education and the consciences of monarchs, they were able to steer state policies, wage war against Protestantism, and advance the "Grand Design" of the Papacy from behind the scenes.
Rerum Novarum
Here are key translated excerpts from Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum (On Capital and Labor), followed by an examination of its argued similarities to socialist/communist ideals, its parallels with the Jesuit reductions, and how the Catholic Church has utilized these concepts.
Napoleon contemporary, Pope Leo XIII was born in 1810 and is the earliest-born person ever filmed (documented).
Translated Excerpts from Rerum Novarum
The encyclical addresses the conditions of the working classes and the disparities between the rich and the poor during the Industrial Revolution:
- On the exploitation of labor: "...by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition... so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself".
- On the source of wealth: "...it is only by the labor of working men that States grow rich. Justice, therefore, demands that the interests of the working classes should be carefully watched over by the administration...".
- On the role of the State: "Whenever the general interest or any particular class suffers, or is threatened with harm... the public authority must step in to deal with it". "...wage-earners, since they mostly belong in the mass of the needy, should be specially cared for and protected by the government".
- On property and common use: While the encyclical formally defends the right to private property against pure state socialism, it restricts its use based on Thomas Aquinas's teachings: "Man should not consider his material possessions as his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need".
Similarities to Socialist and Communist Ideals
Critics and economic historians, such as John W. Robbins, argue that Rerum Novarum relies heavily on a Marxist analysis of capitalism and promotes a collectivist framework.
- Marxist Analytical Framework: The encyclical complains of "abounding wealth among a very small number and destitution among the masses" and changed relations between employers and employees. By referring to the capitalist system as a form of "wage slavery," Leo XIII echoed Karl Marx's rhetoric.
- Labor Theory of Value: Leo XIII stated that it is "incontestable that the wealth of nations originates from no other source than from the labor of workers," closely mirroring Marx's labor theory of value.
- The "Universal Destination of Goods": The encyclical hinges on the Thomistic doctrine that in cases of need, all things are common property. This Roman Catholic principle—that need makes all goods common—functions identically to the communist slogan, "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need". It argues that private property is not absolute but is subject to a "social mortgage" prioritizing public use.
Implementation in the Jesuit Reductions
The fusion of religious authority with communal living was practically demonstrated centuries earlier in the Jesuit reducciones (reductions) of South America, particularly in Paraguay.
- A Communistic State: The Reductions functioned as a "completely communistic system". The settlements were designed as miniature socialized compounds where no individual rights or private property were recognized.
- Centralized Wealth and Distribution: While each family was given a small plot to cultivate, the vast majority of the earnings and produce were deposited in common storehouses controlled by the Jesuits. The priests then distributed these goods in portions to individuals strictly "as necessity required".
- Totalitarian Control: The indigenous people were kept in a state of passive obedience, subjected to rigid rules, strict hours of labor, and corporal punishment if they violated the Jesuits' orders. This system generated "truly enormous" wealth for the Jesuit Order while providing the natives with only the bare necessities of life.
How These Ideals Have Been Used by the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church has historically used the doctrines outlined in Rerum Novarum and the socio-economic models of the Jesuits to combat laissez-faire capitalism, individualism, and Protestantism, ultimately seeking to centralize power.
- Fostering the Redistributive State: Rerum Novarum served as the "entering wedge" for the Church's participation in modern social reform. Pope Pius XI later boasted that the encyclical overthrew the "tottering tenets of Liberalism" (limited government) and ushered in an era of "effective interference by the government". The Church used this to encourage heavy progressive taxes, government ownership of monopolies, and extensive welfare systems.
- Establishing Corporativism and Fascism: The papal distinction between the legal ownership of private property and its common use provided the exact economic and legal theory behind 20th-century fascism. By demanding that economic life be "subjected to and governed by a true and effective directing principle" rather than free competition, the Church threw its moral authority behind authoritarian, interventionist, and corporatist governments in places like Italy, Spain, and Austria.
- Liberation Theology: In the late 20th century, these same concepts blossomed into Liberation Theology in Latin America. The Vatican and its bishops used the principle that "material goods are meant for all" to support "courageous reforms" and wealth redistribution, sometimes even excusing the theft of property or armed revolution if it was deemed necessary to combat "obvious and prolonged tyranny" and achieve "social justice".
In summary, the Catholic Church has utilized the socio-economic frameworks of Rerum Novarum—which reflect the communal control practiced in the Jesuit reductions—to morally justify expanding government intervention, redistributing wealth, and subordinating individual liberty to the collective "common good" managed by state and ecclesiastical authorities.