New Provincial of the Andhra Jesuit Province
On 19 December 2025, Father General Arturo Sosa, SJ, appointed Fr Pudota R. John Susai Raj, SJ, as the Provincial of the Andhra Province of the Society of Jesus. He will assume office on 25 January 2026.
Fr Pudota R. John entered the Society of Jesus in 1986, was ordained a priest in 1999, and pronounced his Final Vows in 2011. He earned a Master’s degree in Theology from Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi, in 2002, and completed his Doctorate in Theology at the Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck, in 2006.
Over the years, Fr John has held several important responsibilities. He served as Director of Kaladarshini (2007–2009), an Institute of Culture and Evangelization in Vijayawada; Superior and Director of Satyodayam Retreat House (2009–2011) in Secunderabad; and Province Coordinator for Formation.
In 2011, he joined the faculty of Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi, where he later served as Principal from 2017 to 2023. In 2023, he held the Jesuit Chair at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, and was also a Visiting Fellow at Georgetown University’s Doha campus in Qatar.
In June 2024, Fr John was appointed Rector of Andhra Loyola Institutions, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, a position he held until his appointment as Provincial.
Fr Pudota R. John Susai Raj
New Provincial of the Andhra Province
Related Posts:
“Since the third Universal Apostolic Preference was given to us, I have spent time discerning how the General Curia can help to move it forward. I didn’t want to set up a heavy structure. I didn’t think a Secretariat here in the Curia was needed. In the end, I opted for a light network structure...”
The Enlarged Council brought together the Secretaries of the Apostolic Sectors, General Counsellors, General Treasurer, Presidents of Conferences, and other officials at the Curia to examine a central question: How to increase and deepen collaboration across apostolic...
Father General Arturo Sosa has appointed Fr John Kobina Ghansah as the new Regional Assistant for Africa and Madagascar and General Counsellor. Fr Ghansah, currently Provincial of the North-West Africa Province (ANW), will assume his new role on 6 January 2027...
A Croatian Jesuit who crossed half the world to serve the poorest communities of Bengal, Fr Ante Gabrić spent five extraordinary decades building up the Church in the Sundarbans – one school, one clinic, one family at a time. His cause for beatification is now before the Church...
The annual meeting of Eco-Jesuit delegates in South Asia, held at Inigo Bhawan in Matigara, Darjeeling, became much more than a routine gathering. Set against the fragile ecology of the Eastern Himalayas, the meeting turned into a moment of discernment on the future...
In April 2026, Pope Leo XIV made the first-ever papal visit to Algeria. Two weeks later, Father Arturo Sosa, SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, travelled to Algeria to visit the small Jesuit community there for the first time since his election in 2016. The land of St Augustine, bishop of Hippo...
