schoolscolleges2020 hed news

Xavier University, a Jesuit-run academic institution, hails the successful election of the new superior general of the Society of Jesus, Fr Arturo Sosa Abascal SJ, the first Latin-American to lead the largest religious order in the world.

XU president Fr Roberto C Yap SJ said in his message to the Xavier community, “I am very pleased to inform the community that on 14th October 2016, the 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus elected Fr Arturo Sosa Abascal SJ as the 31st Superior General of the Jesuits.”

Sosa was born in Caracas, Venezuela on November 12, 1948. Just like Latin-American Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) who had to deal with his divided province during the Argentine dictatorship in 1970s, Sosa served as the Venezuelan provincial from 1996 to 2004, where he steered the tensions within his own province over the populist autocracy of Hugo Chávez.

His educational background includes a doctorate in political sciences from the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He received his license in philosophy from Andrés Bello Catholic University in 1972. He is fluent in Spanish, Italian, and English, and understands French.

(Venezuelan Father Arturo Sosa Abascal SJ has been chosen as the new head of the Jesuits. Official photo from the Society of Jesus.)

Before his appointment as the provincial superior of the Jesuits in Venezuela, Sosa was the coordinator for social apostolate and later as the director of Centro Gumilla, a research and social action center run by the Jesuits in his home country.

Sosa has had a long career dedicated to teaching and research in the area of political sciences. He held a number of responsibilities in the academe, as a professor and a member of the foundation council of the Andrés Bello Catholic University. For ten years he was also the rector of the Catholic University of Táchira. He has published a number of works, mainly about the Venezuelan history and politics.

In 2004, he was invited by the Center for Latin American Studies of Georgetown University in the United States as a lecturer and was a professor of Venezuelan Political Thinking of the Catholic University of Táchira.

During the 35th General Congregation in 2008, he was chosen counselor general by then Superior General Fr Adolfo Nicolás. In 2014, he joined the curia of the Society of Jesus in Rome as the delegate for the Interprovincial Houses and Works of the Society of Jesus in Rome, which include the Pontifical Gregorian University, Pontifical Biblical Institute, Pontifical Oriental Institute, and Vatican Observatory, among other international colleges and residences.

Some 212 Jesuit electors, representatives of more than 17,000 Jesuits worldwide, voted for Sosa during the recent congregation following the resignation of Fr Adolfo Nicolás SJ.

In solidarity, Yap encouraged the Xavier Ateneo community to join the Society of Jesus “in thanking the Lord for the election of Fr Sosa as our new leader and for the generous and wise service of Fr Adolfo Nicolás SJ, his predecessor.”

XU was founded in 1933 by Fr James TG Hayes SJ, superior of the Philippine Jesuit mission and first bishop and archbishop of Cagayan de Oro.

On August 27, 1958, Ateneo de Cagayan was inaugurated as a university and was, thenceforth, called Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan, in honor of St Francis Xavier, a Jesuit missionary to the Indies and companion of St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. XU became the first university in Mindanao and the first Jesuit university (among Ateneo schools) in the Philippines.

Etched in its mission, “As a Jesuit university, Xavier participates in the Jesuit mission of reconciliation with God, with others and with creation; it seeks to serve the faith, promote justice, dialogue with culture and religions, and protect the environment; it upholds the Ignatian values of magis, cura personalis, and finding-God-in-all-things.” ∎