Book recommendation – HOPE: Pope Francis: The Autobiography

HOPE: Pope Francis: The Autobiography with Carlo Musso. (Translated from Italian by Richard Dixon. Random House, Canada. 2025) HOPE! What a fitting title to put before us as we are treated to the story of this great man of our time! As I read these pages, I feel hope, and I feel gratitude. This book gives us more than a biography. It is history, geography, ecology, spirituality, theology, all peppered with anecdotes showing humour, compassion, struggle, fears, admissions of failure and ever-present HOPE!

Pope Francis knows art and artists, books and authors, movies, music. He lives his understanding that God loves everyone, that

tradition is valued but is not an end, and he sees things in a contemporary way. He has seen suffering; he has known suffering. He holds in his memory and in his heart relationships and memories that have influenced his life and his choices. He speaks of these as well as sharing the surprises he has met along the way. Hope lives and thrives within him and he spreads hope around him. Hope is the message we find in every chapter of his story.

This quote stays with me: “I feel much confidence in the hands of God, as the Psalm says: ‘like a weaned child to its mother.’ At other times, praying in those arms, I fall asleep.”