VATICAN CITY — The Jesuits elected their first-ever Latin American leader Friday, following in the footsteps of the cardinals who elected the Jesuit Pope Francis as history’s first Latin American pope.

A gathering of Jesuit priests from around the world on Friday elected the Rev. Arturo Sosa of Venezuela to replace the retiring Rev. Adolfo Nicolas of Spain as father general.

The Society of Jesus, as the Jesuits are formally known, is the largest religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church. It currently counts some 16,740 members, including priests, brothers, lay members and novitiates.

Francis joined the congregation as a teenager in his native Argentina. He led the Jesuits in Argentina as a young priest and became both the first Latin American and the first Jesuit to ever be elected pope in 2013.