DonInKansas,

You are absolutely correct about the title given to the Superior General of the Jesuits.  This title came into use after the Council of Trent, when the Jesuits put Trent's decrees into action.  The Jesuits then, directed by Ignatius Loyala, took a special vow "to serve the Roman pontiff as God's vicar on earth and to execute immediately and without hesitation all that the reigning pope or his successors may enjoin upon them."

Another bit of history about the Jesuits: within twenty-five years after their founding in 1540, the Jesuits had attracted over a thousand of the most educated, zealous, reform-minded men in Europe.


:-)  Pope Francis IS the REIGNING POPE, so he can't be elected as Superior General of the Jesuits.