Father Arturo Sosa Abascal, a 68-year-old Venezuelan, on Friday was elected superior general of the Society of Jesus at the 36th general congregation of the Society of Jesus in Rome.
The 30th successor of Jesuit founder St Ignatius of Loyola succeeds Father Adolfo Nicolas, a Spanish priest who resigned this month aged 80.
Pope Francis was the first to be informed of the appointment, as customary.
Sosa Abascal is the Jesuits' first non-European leader in the congregation's nearly 500-year-long history and the first superior general to be elected under a Jesuit pope.
Both the superior general and the pontiff are Latin-American.
The Jesuit leader is nicknamed the Black Pope due to his simple black priest's vestments.
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