“I love punctuality,” Pope Francis wrote in Chapter 5 of his autobiography, which will be published in 18 languages on Tuesday. It’s a virtue I’ve learned to appreciate. Arrive quickly.”
Unfortunately, as a newborn, Francis arrived a week late and a doctor had to be called, who sat on his mother’s stomach and began “struggling and running around” to deliver the child.
Francis wrote: “So I came into the world.”
Pope Francis’ 320-page book ‘Hope: An Autobiography’, which contains the Pope’s reflections and meditations on the major social and political issues of our time, including climate change, poverty, immigration, arms control, and war, has been described by English publisher Random House as “historical.” publication” and “the first published memoir by a sitting Pope.”
This is technically not true. That honor belongs to Pope Pius II’s “Commentary,” a 15th-century chronicle. This is the 13th volume about his life and is considered an important work of Renaissance humanism.
Francis is not the first pope to share his life story. As a cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger wrote an autobiography published in 1997, eight years before he became Pope Benedict
But for readers, including Roman Catholics, Hope vividly recreates the colorful world in which young Jorge Mario Bergoglio grew up, a world that was a menagerie of colorful characters, including immigrants from various countries, prostitutes, and his bag lady. “My aunt and other memorable family members.
Close observers of Francis will recognize in his autobiography his views expressed in his various encyclicals, his weekly addresses at the Vatican, and his speeches during his travels. But “Hope” draws a line from the events and encounters of Francis’ childhood that have shaped his thinking to this day.
Francis’ unwavering support for immigrants, he wrote, stems from his own background as the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina. His aversion to war was expressed by, “Anyone who starts a war is evil. God is peace,” he wrote in “Hope.” He found his roots in his grandfather’s war experiences during World War I. “Nono depicted the horror, pain, fear, and absurd, alienating senselessness of war,” he wrote. A left-leaning biopharmaceutical researcher I met before entering seminary “taught me how to think, how to think about politics.”
This book contains many personal memories. As a young teacher of creative writing, Francis wrote that his students nicknamed him “Carucha” or “Babyface.” He recalls once helping the blind Jorge Luis Borges shave. “He was an agnostic who recited the Lord’s Prayer every night because he had promised his mother that he would say it and that he would die after performing his last rites.”
Francis is no stranger to journalistic collaborations. A book about his life was published, featuring an interview with Argentine journalist Sergio Rubin when he was Cardinal of Buenos Aires.
He wrote several more volumes since he became Pope. Francis wrote “Let Us Dream,” a first-person story with his biographer Austen Ivereigh, that explores how crisis can be a positive catalyst for change during the coronavirus pandemic. The book made the New York Times bestseller list. Last year, ‘Life’, a book rich in anecdotes written with Fabio Marchese Ragona, was published worldwide and was also included in Time Magazine’s selection list.
“Hope” was six years in the making and was one of publishing’s most obscure works. Pope Francis originally planned to publish this autobiography posthumously, but changed his mind last summer to publish it in time for the 2025 Jubilee, a Holy Year of the Catholic Church held every 25 years.
Italian publisher Mondadori announced the book’s impending release at last year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, sparking excitement, especially among Francis’ biographers.
In an interview, Mr. Iverneigh said the autobiography was an opportunity. “It was an opportunity for Frances to enter an episode of her life. His biographers, including myself, have speculated about this and “sometimes struggled to interpret it.”
But although rich in anecdotes about Francis’s childhood in the Buenos Aires barrio and episodes that Mr. Ivernay describes as “gems,” the book does not offer much insight into Francis’ later life beyond what was already “well-trodden material.” .
For example, Francis says little about his time in the Vatican. His statement that “the reform of the Roman Curia was the most difficult and for a long time there was the greatest resistance to change” does not provide any details of the struggle involved.
“The Pope is the Pope, and I’m really excited to be repackaging his reflections for the public,” Mr. Iverneigh said. Iverneigh added that he believed the Pope saw these books as “tools of evangelization.” However, he added, “I was honestly disappointed” that most of the original work was dismissed as childhood content.
Perhaps the most newsworthy fragment in the book is Francis’ recollection of his 2021 visit to Iraq. This content was published as an excerpt in the Jesuit magazine America last December. Francis wrote that he survived two assassination attempts. Nineveh’s former governor later denied that any such incident occurred. The Times also published an excerpt from his autobiography in December about his belief in humor.
Gian Maria Vian, a former editor-in-chief of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, praises the “many personal details” the book adds to Francis’ biography, but many of them He said it was written through “rose-colored glasses.”
Francis wrote the book with Mr. Musso, a former Mondadori publishing executive who recently founded an independent publishing company. The idea took shape in 2019 and work began a year later.
“I am honored by his trust,” Mr. Musso said. “I think he wanted it not to be an autobiography that talks about himself, but to use his memories and stories to speak to everything and everyone, even in very difficult moments.”
