Fr General Arturo Sosa SJ desires to see Jesuits fight against cultural homogenisation and celebrate diversity in each country around the world. “Just as environmental advocates talk about biodiversity, for us, multiculturalism is to be defended,” he told Salt & Light Television in Canada.

In a 30-minute interview, Fr Sosa talked about how the first Jesuits who arrived in Canada – and in Latin America and other parts of the world – made an effort to inculturate themselves by learning the languages of the indigenous peoples.

“It is a tradition,” he said. “It is also a challenge for the rest of the world; that is, how we manage to have that tension between inculturation … and integration with other cultures.”

Fr Sosa said the Jesuits are “fighting against a tendency to homogenise the world culturally”.

“The face of God is a multicultural face,” he said. “True universal citizenship is one that recognises and feeds on diversity.”

“We Jesuits want to make that contribution, that is, to have inculturation in our own culture; to have a critical vision of our own culture from the light of the Gospel, and to be able to contribute with that universal vision where the diversity reflects that face of God.”

Among the other topics discussed in the interview were the three aspects of reconciliation that were highlighted at the last General Congregation – reconciliation among human beings, reconciliation with nature and the environment, and reconciliation with God.

“You cannot do one without doing the other,” said Fr Sosa. “That is, you cannot be right with God and wrong with nature, or with other human beings. So, that word (reconciliation) synthesises what the Society has been trying to do since the Second Vatican Council.”