By Matters India Reporter

Mumbai, Feb. 17, 2019: Father Arturo Sosa, superior general of the Society of Jesus, is scheduled to make his first visit the Bombay Jesuit Province on March 2. This is his second visit to India.

Father Sosa had chosen India for his first official trip in February 2017 when he visited his confreres in New Delhi, Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh and Ambikapur and Raipur in Chhattisgarh.

He was elected the head of the largest Catholic religious congregation on October 14, 2016. Father Sosa was elected during the 36th General Congregation, the highest decision making body of the Society. He is the first Jesuit chief from Latin America, the same region of Pope Francis.

His choice of India underlined the demographic shift within the universal Society. The Jesuit Conference of South Asia accounts for close to 25 percent of the whole Society, with 4,027 members.

Father Sosa will meet with the provincial and his team at Vinayalaya, Andheri. He will celebrate Mass for the province and interact with all province Jesuits.

From March 3 to 5, he will visit Manickpur, Vasai, St Stanislaus, Bandra, Talasari Mission, Vinayalaya, Andheri and St Xavier’s College, Mumbai. He will meet with Archbishop Felix Machado of Vasai and Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay.

The Jesuit superior general sometimes carries the nickname of the Black Pope, after his simple black priest’s vestments, as contrasted to the white garb of the Pope.

The Jesuit Conference of South Asia, the largest unit in the Society, comprises those working in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The conference has 18 provinces and two regions.