Fr Arturo Sosa Abascal has been voted the next superior general of the Society of Jesus.
The Venezuelan becomes the 30th successor of Jesuit founder St Ignatius of Loyola and leader of the Catholic Church’s largest religious order.
He is the Jesuits’ first non-European leader in the society’s 476-year history, its first Latin-American leader and also the first superior general to be elected under a Jesuit pope.
He succeeds Fr Adolfo Nicolás, a Spanish priest who formally resigned this month aged 80.
The election took place in Rome last Friday.
Fr Sosa was born in Caracas in 1948, and before his election worked in Rome in a senior administrative role overseeing several Jesuit institutions.
He has a political science doctorate from the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He speaks Spanish, Italian and English.
During his ministry, Fr Sosa has had to navigate tricky relations with the government of the day, especially when he was Venezuelan provincial between 1996 and 2004, when Hugo Chávez’s leadership was causing local tensions.
During an interview in 2014, he described the regime that followed Hugo Chavez’s, led by President Nicolás Maduro, as a “popular tyranny.”
Before he became provincial he was in charge of the apostolate of Jesuits in Venezuela, which includes the Jesuit network of schools for the poor, and he was head of the Centro Gumilla, a social action research centre run by the Jesuits.
Fr Sosa has spent much time in academia, and served as rector of the Catholic University of Táchira. He was also a visiting professor at Georgetown University
in 2004.
The Jesuits worldwide now includes 12,000 priests, 1,300 brothers, 2,700 scholastics and 753 novices.
Pope: don’t defend the faith by opposing other religions
Meeting Catholics and Lutherans from Germany, Pope Francis said he does not like “the contradiction of those who want to defend Christianity in the West, and, on the other hand, are against refugees and other religions”.
“This is not something I’ve read in books, but I see in the newspapers and on television every day,” Pope Francis said.
Answering questions from young people in the group, the Pope said, “the sickness or, you can say the sin, that Jesus condemns most is hypocrisy.
“You cannot be a Christian without doing what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 25,” he added, meaning Christ’s injunction to help the needy by such works of mercy as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and welcoming the stranger.
“It’s hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help, someone who is hungry or thirsty, toss out someone who is in need of my help.”
Asked what he thought of the Reformation, Pope Francis said Christianity’s history has been marked by reform movements small and large, some of which were healthy and holy and others of which went awry because of sin.
South African Jesuit shot by police
A South African priest has been injured after being shot in the face with rubber bullets.
Fr Graham Pugin refused to allow police entry on to church grounds to arrest students seeking refuge during a university protest.
Students were taking part in a Fees Must Fall protest at the nearby Witwatersrand University when violence broke out between police and protesters.
At least 20 people were injured and 15 arrested, according to local media.
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