19 Facts About Arturo Sosa

Arturo Marcelino Sosa Abascal was born on 12 November 1948 and is a Venezuelan Catholic priest who is serving as the 31st superior general of the Society of Jesus.

Arturo Sosa was elected by the Society's 36th General Congregation on 14 October 2016, succeeding Adolfo Nicolas.

Arturo Sosa is the first person born in Latin America to lead the Jesuits.

Arturo Sosa entered the Society of Jesus in 1966 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1977.

Arturo Sosa earned a licentiate in philosophy from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in 1972, and a doctorate in political science from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in 1990.

Arturo Sosa was a professor and member of the Council of the foundation for the Andres Bello Catholic University, and rector of the Catholic University of Tachira, both Jesuit universities.

Arturo Sosa was the Chair of Contemporary Political Theory and the Department of Social Change at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Venezuela.

Arturo Sosa published a number of works, mainly about the history and politics of Venezuela.

Arturo Sosa was coordinator of the social apostolate and director of Centro Gumilla in Venezuela, a centre of research and social action for the Jesuits in Venezuela, as well as editor-in-chief of Revista SIC magazine for Catholic social ethics and politics from 1976 to 1996.

Between 1996 and 2004, Sosa was Provincial Superior of the Jesuits in Venezuela.

Arturo Sosa became the first Latin American to head the Jesuits.

In 2017, in a visit to the Jesuit mission in Cambodia, Arturo Sosa met with a group of Buddhist monks in the Buddhist-majority country.

In February 2019, after guiding Jesuits and their lay collaborators through two years of discernment, Arturo Sosa announced four priorities that would guide the Society's decisions for the next decade.

The Catholic Herald criticised Arturo Sosa for being one of over 1,000 signatories of a 1989 letter welcoming Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to Venezuela in 1989, Castro having repressed the Catholic Church in Cuba during his time in power.

Arturo Sosa argued that the doctrine of the Church is in "continuous development", and "never in white and black".

The English priest and consulting editor of The Catholic Herald Alexander Lucie-Smith disagreed with Arturo Sosa, arguing that the Church's teaching on the indissolubility of marriage has been historically consistent, and that there was no precedent set in the Bible to interpret these words otherwise.

Catholic author Vittorio Messori accused Arturo Sosa of "'liquefying' the Gospel itself" by suggesting that the Gospel should be adapted according to the times on the basis that Jesus's words were not recorded verbatim or "on tape".

In October 2018, in an interview with Eternal Word Television Network, Arturo Sosa argued that "the pope is not the chief of the Church, he's the Bishop of Rome".

Arturo Sosa has authored about a dozen books on politics and on the history of Venezuela, including:.