The Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Fr Arturo Sosa SJ, held an international press conference on 24 April at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome in honour of their Jesuit brother, Pope Francis. Below is the full text of Fr General Sosa’s speech.

Press Conference in memory of Pope Francis
General Curia of the Society of Jesus, Rome, April 24, 2025

Please receive a cordial welcome to this meeting in which the Society of Jesus wishes to share the grateful memory of our brother Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your presence.

Of the many facets of a person with the long life and responsibilities that he had to carry out, I would like to highlight Pope Francis’ dimension of “man of God”. His approach to people and the situation in each context in which he lived is only grasped in its depth from the recognition of his spiritual experience. Once he chose to be a disciple of Jesus, his deep motivation in life was to put God’s will into practice, that is, to contribute to the transformation of humanity to make this world a worthy home for all human beings.

Pope Francis does not seek to please everyone or measure his performances by some popularity index. Assimilating the gospel of Jesus and drawing conclusions from the history of men and women of God becoming prophets, saints…, he knew that his actions and decisions would not be to everyone’s liking. The important thing was to listen to one another, to dialogue with the complexity of reality, to scrutinize the signs of the times and in prayer, in familiarity with his Lord, to discern what is most appropriate at any given moment.

Let us talk about Pope Francis and the message that we receive through him as human beings, as Christians, as people committed to putting into practice the dream of a dignified life for all, a world that has become a common home in which we can live as brothers and sisters, making cultural differences our heritage and meeting an opportunity to enrich each other. A man who knew how to acquire God’s merciful gaze on human complexity and gave his life to open up greater spaces for common life.

I understand perfectly well that you have in mind the “after” of Pope Francis. I would say that I share that question about the immediate future of the Church. However, because I believe, with the rest of the People of God, that it will be the Holy Spirit who will be in charge of inspiring the election of the new successor of Peter, I will not comment on this until he is elected. The conclave meets to elect Peter’s successor, not Francis’ successor. Each pope is chosen to wear the “fisherman’s sandals” that Jesus placed at the head of the community of his followers.

The Society of Jesus was born to serve the mission of the Church under the direct direction of the Pope. Jesuits take a fourth vow of obedience to the Pope about the mission to be carried out. As soon as the new Pope is elected, we will make ourselves available to him, as we have done for more than 450 years.