Pope Francis’ autobiography, Hope, arrives in bookstores

ROME – “I like punctuality. It’s a virtue I have learnt to appreciate,” Pope Francis writes in the fifth chapter of his autobiography, to be published on Jan 14 in 18 languages, adding that he considers it “a sign of good manners and respect, to arrive promptly”.

Unfortunately, when he was a newborn, Pope Francis writes, he arrived a week late, necessitating a call to the doctor, who sat on his mother’s abdomen and began “to press and to ‘jump about’” to induce his birth.

“And so it was that I came into the world,” he writes.

Hope: The Autobiography, by Pope Francis – a 320-page compendium of the Pope’s memories and musings on the major social and political issues of our times, including climate change, poverty, immigration, arms control and war – is billed by its English-language publisher, Random House, as a “historic publication” and “the first memoir to be published by a sitting pope”.

That is not technically true. That honour belongs to Pope Pius II’s 15th-century chronicles, The Commentaries, a 13-book account of his life that is considered a seminal text in Renaissance humanism.

Pope Francis is also not the first pope to share his life story.

As a cardinal, the late Joseph Ratzinger wrote an autobiography that was published in 1997, eight years before he became Pope Benedict XVI, and both he and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, co-authored books with journalists that were personal reflections and not official papal documents.

But for readers, including the Roman Catholic faithful, Hope vividly recreates the colourful world where the young Jorge Mario Bergoglio grew up – a world that was a menagerie of migrants from various countries and colourful figures, including prostitutes, his “bag-lady” aunt, and other memorable family members.

People who watch Pope Francis closely will recognise in the autobiography many of his views from his various encyclicals, his weekly addresses at the Vatican and speeches during his travels.

Hope, however, draws a line from the childhood events and encounters that forged Pope Francis’ thinking to the current day.

Pope Francis’ unswerving support for migrants, he writes, derives from his own background as the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina.

His

abhorrence of war

– “anyone who makes war is evil. God is peace”, he writes in Hope – finds root in the wartime experiences of his grandfather in World War I.

“Nono described the horror, the pain, the fear, the absurd alienating pointlessness of the war,” he writes.

A left-leaning biomedical pharmaceutical researcher he met before entering a seminary “taught me to think – by which I mean, to think about politics”.

‘Babyface’

There are many personal memories described in the book: When he was a young teacher teaching creative writing, Pope Francis writes, his students nicknamed him “Carucha” or “Babyface”.

He recalls that he once helped a nearly blind Jorge Luis Borges to shave.

“He was an agnostic who recited the Lord’s Prayer every night because he had promised his mother he’d do so, and who would die with the last rites.”

Pope Francis is no stranger to journalistic collaborations. A book on his life written from interviews he gave to Argentine journalist Sergio Rubin was published when he was still cardinal of Buenos Aires.

Since he became pope, there have been several more: He wrote Let Us Dream, a first-person account exploring how crisis can be a positive catalyst for change, during the coronavirus pandemic, with his biographer Austen Ivereigh. The book made the New York Times bestseller list.

In 2024, Life, an anecdote-rich book written with Mr Fabio Marchese Ragona, was published worldwide, and also made the Times’ list.

Hope was six years in the making and one of the publishing world’s best-kept secrets.

Originally, Pope Francis had intended the autobiography to be published posthumously. But last summer, he changed his mind so that the publication would coincide with

the 2025 Jubilee

, the Catholic Church’s Holy Year that takes place every quarter century.

Mondadori, the Italian publisher, announced the book’s imminent release at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, stirring excitement, not least among Pope Francis’ biographers.

An autobiography was an opportunity, Mr Ivereigh said in an interview, “for Francis to go into episodes of his life, about which his biographers, including me”, had speculated, argued “and struggled sometimes to interpret”.

But while rich in anecdotes about Pope Francis’ childhood in the Buenos Aires barrio, episodes Mr Ivereigh described as “gems”, the book does not offer much insight into Pope Francis’ later life other than that which is already “well-trodden material”.

Perhaps the most newsworthy snippet in the book is Pope Francis’ recollections of his 2021 visit to Iraq, which were published as an excerpt in the Jesuit magazine America in December.

Pope Francis wrote that he

survived two foiled assassination attempts

. The former governor of Nineveh later denied that any such incidents occurred.

The Times also published an excerpt from the autobiography in December, this one about there being faith in humour.

Rose-tinted glasses

Mr Gian Maria Vian, a former editor-in-chief of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, said he appreciated the “many personal details” the book added to Pope Francis’ biography, but that much had been written through “rose-tinted glasses”.

Pope Francis wrote the book with Mr Carlo Musso, a former Mondadori publishing director who recently founded an independent publishing house. The idea took shape in 2019 and work began a year later.

“I was honoured by his trust,” Mr Musso said. “I don’t think he wanted an autobiography to talk about himself, but using his memories, his stories, to speak of everyone and to everyone, even very difficult moments.” NYTIMES