Hope: The Autobiography, by Pope Francis is the first autobiography written by a living pope. The original intention was to release it after the pope’s passing: however, it was instead published in January to coincide with the Holy Year of Jubilee 2025, the theme for which is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’.
At only 320 pages, the book is neither a weighty comprehensive memoir, nor a careful chronology of the events of the pope’s long life. Instead, conversational in tone, it’s a very readable account of key episodes and influences with anecdotes and diversions along the way. With recollections of his life and the liberally-sprinkled tales of the people among whom he has lived, he weaves together wide-ranging views on the world over the last century.
The value he bestows on the people he meets illustrates the importance he places on communication in everyday life, and although written by Italian ghostwriter Carlo Musso, and then translated into English, this still feels like a genuine insight into the mind of a good and thoughtful man.
His Holiness begins with his family in north-western Italy, his grandparents, great-grandparents, and a farmstead at Portacomaro with steep slopes and hazel wood. First, he traces their move to the city and their lives before they move across the sea to South America. It’s clear he feels a sense of place in this part of Europe, even though he was born and grew up in Argentina. That his parents were migrants gently reminds us of the plights of millions of migrants and refugees today, and this invites us to consider families in the same boat in the 21st century.
Pope Francis quotes the Argentine poet Francisco Luis Bernandez, ‘Roots give us the strength to move forward, to bear fruit and to blossom’. And, born in Buenos Aires in 1939, it is in the heart of his godly family, that the popoe flourishes, the first-born son of a family who are ‘respectably poor’ in a ‘simple house in a simple neighbourhood’. He describes himself as an ordinary boy who enjoyed playing football, collecting stamps, and who wanted to be butcher when he grew up.
It’s fascinating therefore to follow his path into the church, while his mother harboured hopes he would become a doctor. Yet ‘sanctity is always revolutionary!’ he notes [with reference to St Pier Giorgio who is due to be canonized this summer].
And in step with the Pope Francis, readers follow his unwavering calling and compassion, despite the occasional doubt and episodes of melancholy with which he has struggled since he was a teenager.
Now 88, this Argentinian pope has lived through many chapters and controversies, globally and closer to home, from the military dictatorship in Argentina in the 1970s to the emergence of AI. We live in a world of rapid change, yet ‘True love is restless, ’and ‘Christians must be restless and joyous,’ says Pope Francis.
“You won’t believe it, but everything there is in this world has some purpose,” he states.
However, we live in a world where politics is pugnacious, and where there’s a climate emergency hammering on the door, “essentially the sick fruit of a blind war that man has declared against himself, against the fairer distribution of resources, against nature, against his own planet.” With the undeniable acceleration of global warming, it’s no wonder he is concerned about such matters.
Whatever the ancient Romans thought, “there is no such thing as a god of war”. And yet, Pope Francis is concerned that “from the start of [his] papacy there has been the clearest evidence of the makings of a Third World War.”
“War is never far away; it’s extremely close—indeed, it’s inside each one of us. Because war begins in the heart.” And he continues, “the human heart is also the first step along every path of reconciliation.”
Hope: The Autobiography is also a gentle treatise on understanding and forgiveness. The Pope may be Head of the Roman Catholic Church but he is also a man, and in this wide-ranging relatable Papal romp through his lifetime, he recalls several instances of which he is not proud, and for which he has asked for forgiveness. Suggesting we all cultivate generosity, kindness and humility, he’s also clear on the importance of honesty in politics, the sacrosanct nature of rights of freedom in religion, and the freedom of expression.
And with a keen awareness of the world in the 2020s, the Pope considers how “we live today in a time when it’s easy to cut ourselves off, to create links that are virtual, remote. Theoretically in contact but practically alone.”
Whilst there is fear and hate in the world, there is love too, and it is with this love, and with hope and faith – that we move forward. ‘When someone is left behind, the whole human family comes to a halt.’
It’s therefore a pleasure to pick up such an open-hearted book by the Holy Father, a man with global influence, who is warm, wise and true, dignified yet humble. His words and actions should give us all hope in this Jubilee year, and our thoughts are with him in hospital this weekend.
