HOPE

Personal story of Pope Francis.

Pope Francis’ Life: My Story Through History (2024) acted as a basic set of memoirs, but this newest work is a more in-depth look at the life of the pontiff. Francis, born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, dives deep into his family story, memories of his youth, years of struggle and conflict in Argentina as a church leader, and finally his role as head of the Roman Catholic Church. Readers will find this autobiography replete with intriguing and sometimes surprising and even disturbing stories from the pope’s life. Francis’ worldview was shaped by a concern for the poor and the displaced; his father was an Italian immigrant, and his mother was also of Italian descent. He references war as the great evil and tragedy of humankind, returning to the theme again and again. Francis does not hide his own mistakes or peccadilloes, nor does he boast of his own accomplishments. His is a modest and humble story, centered less on himself than on the myriad of people he has encountered through the decades. This includes many people who have suffered, through political oppression, warfare, disease, and more. This makes Francis’ life story quite moving at times. Nevertheless, the work has a choppy feel, both in diction and in organization. The pope tends to wander from one topic to another and often writes in pithy, moralistic declarations. Toward the end, he veers off from autobiography to his views on humanity and life itself. He upholds the book’s title with this statement: “For we Christians, the future has a name and this name is hope.” Hope is indeed another recurring theme, even in the midst of the world’s evil and dysfunction, which he has seen firsthand.

Though unevenly written, Francis’s work is honest, interesting, and of historic value.