"Black Pope" faces grueling schedule on first visit to Venezuela
Jesuit Superior General, Peter Hans Kolvenbach S.J., has begun a week's visit to Venezuela traveling throughout the country to see the work of the 200 Jesuits stationed here.
Also called the "Black Pope" because of the Jesuits' special vow of obedience to the Pope -- which converted them into the Roman Catholic Church's shock troops during the counter-reformation -- as well as the color of their garb which contrasts with the white Papal.
Peter Hans Kolvenbach was elected superior in 1993, succeeding the famous Pedro Arrupe, who guided the society into post-Vatican II territory and made the defense of human rights the society's flagship. This is the first time the Dutch-born Father Kolvenbach has made an official visit to Venezuela. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1961 and has been Provincial in the Middle East (Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt).
His busy schedule started in Caracas, Sunday, with the celebration of Colegio San Ignacio's Diamond Jubilee where he's expected to make a speech on the guide-lines covering the Jesuits' current vision of education.
Today, Monday, he's inaugurating a Social Affairs seminar "Option for the poor as a commitment to beat poverty" organized by the Venezuelan Jesuit think tank "Centro Gumilla," the Andres Bello Catholic University and the Jesuit-inspired "Fe y Alegria" school system.
Tomorrow, Kolvenbach will visit Barquisimeto (315 kilometers -- 221 miles SW of Caracas) to meet members of his order and committed laity, and from there he'll fly to Ciudad Guayana (720 kilometers -- 504 miles SE of Caracas) to visit the Loyola College to speak at a conference on "The Jesuit University in a developing country and its contact with secondary education."
The Black Pope will then also visit Merida (680 kilometers -- 476 miles SW of Caracas) and San Cristobal (816 kilometers -- 571 miles SW of Caracas) where Fe y Alegria has established rural schools.
On returning to Caracas, his final act will be a Mass in the working class zone of Catia and another conference in the San Jose Obrero technical institute.
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