Hope: The Autobiography
Pope Francis (Random House, $42, 302 pages)
Hope: The Autobiography was not written by Pope Francis but rather its “co-author” Carlo Musso, an Italian journalist who held numerous conversations with the Holy Father and scoured the documentary records of his pontificate. It was not to be published until after the death of Francis but was released shortly before his passing in April. And it is not a thorough autobiography, largely skipping his controversial time as Bishop of Buenos Aries, leaving a large chunk of his life from becoming a priest to becoming the pope a mystery. Furthermore, at times the book does not relate events and controversies as much as justify Pope Francis’ position on them, specifically his often-petty attacks on tradition and conservative priests and prelates.
Despite these numerous shortcomings, Hope: The Autobiography is a useful book to understand many of the themes of the Francis papacy. Assuming his memories and retelling are true – not a safe assumption given the subject – Jorge Bergoglio was shaped by his family and his people. He tells the story of his grandfather’s fighting in the trenches in Italy and Slovenia, his grandparent’s political radicalism opposing fascism in Italy, his parents’ arduous journey emigrating to Argentina, and the poverty surrounding them as he grew up (although young Jorge Bergoglio grew up in a comfortable middle-class home). Jumping to his pontificate, he reports on his visits to war-torn and poverty-stricken areas of the world, especially refugee camps, and those supposedly affected by climate change. According to Hope, these served as either foundational moments on which his concern for social justice was built or times when that commitment was solidified. In the closing pages, Francis writes “we are our heart” because it is the heart “that configures us in our spiritual identity, which places us in communion with other people.” That insight, more than any autobiographical story, explains Francis and his pontificate and the power of his ghost-written memoir: Bergoglio/Francis was no theologian, no deep thinker, but a man who felt deeply and passionately many of the injustices of the world and sought to fix them.
