August 16, 2022
Delivered on August 16, 2022 at Red Cloud Indian School
Jesuit Father Superior General Arturo Sosa
Meeting with the Lakota people, Red Cloud School, St. Francis Mission

I am grateful for the chance to join you this evening to share a meal and also to share what is in my heart.

To share my heart I need to start by telling you who I am. I am not the pope. I am not a politician. I am not a person with riches or power. I am a simple Jesuit who wants to walk with Jesus, poor and humble, and with others like you who seek the reign of Wakhan Tanka, whether in Christian or in traditional Lakota ways.

My name is Arturo. I am from Venezuela in Latin America. I am the eldest of six brothers and sisters. Some of them still live in Venezuela, others have had to leave our country because of its political and economic crises.

As a boy I studied at a Jesuit school in Venezuela. When I graduated I joined the Jesuits. I grew in prayer and in knowledge of myself and of my culture. I grew in gratitude for the overwhelming gift of God’s mercy. I grew in confidence…