Book review
The autobiography Hope by Pope Francis, written with Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s own voice, presents a vivid testimony of a man who sees his life as a pilgrimage under God’s guidance. From the opening pages to the conclusion, he stresses that hope is not an idea or an optimistic mood but a gift from God that no one can take away. “God cannot take hope from us, because he cannot deny himself,” he writes, and the whole book unfolds around this conviction. The story is not merely a sequence of personal memories but an invitation to believe that the Church, the world, and each human being are carried by a greater promise.
Francis recalls that when he traveled to Rome for the conclave in 2013 he had only a return ticket and a small bag. He never expected to be chosen, and when Cardinal Hummes whispered to him “Do not forget the poor,” the words determined his papal name. Stepping out onto the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica, he did not address the crowd with a triumphal proclamation but asked them to bless their bishop. This humility and insistence on closeness to the people have marked his pontificate ever since. He describes himself as a pastor who listens, a man with faults and limitations but entrusted with a mission of service.
The narrative moves through the great themes of his papacy. He returns often to his conviction that peace is always possible, however fragile and improbable it may appear. He remembers walking with difficulty into the Russian embassy at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, asking for an end to the bombing and offering himself as a mediator. Even when his words were politely received but not accepted, he did not stop repeating that dialogue and reconciliation are never futile. The Pope admits his pain, his frustrations, and his physical weakness, but interprets them within a horizon of trust in God’s fidelity.
Equally strong is his emphasis on the Church as the People of God, a feminine reality, the Bride of Christ, made up of men and women together. He sees one of the great sins of recent centuries as the excessive masculinity of the Church and insists that women’s voice and authority must be better recognized. He has appointed many women to important positions in the Vatican and invites the entire Church to receive the contribution of women’s theology in order to understand itself more fully. For him, clericalism and the obsession with power are obstacles that obscure the Gospel. The Church belongs to Christ and Christ belongs to all, and no one should be excluded from the invitation.
The book is also a record of his journeys. He recalls the more than sixty apostolic visits, each of them a chance to share in the joys and wounds of the peoples he encountered. He prayed with migrants in Lampedusa, visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, consoled victims of violence in Iraq, and celebrated Mass in the most unexpected places, even blessing a marriage on an airplane. Each journey, he says, was not about diplomacy or protocol but about touching wounds, being close, and reminding people that hope does not die. He insists that he never tired of repeating: peace is possible.
Francis’s account is also marked by his Marian devotion. He tells how the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome became a place of refuge and strength, where he prayed before and after each journey and where he went in the silence of the pandemic to entrust the world’s wounds to Mary. He reveals his wish that, when his earthly life ends, he may be buried there near the image of the Queen of Peace, not in Saint Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican, he says, is a place of service, not his eternal home. His words are disarmingly simple: the Lord has given him many blessings, and he asks only one more, to be sustained when the time comes, since he admits he is not very brave in the face of physical pain.
Throughout the book Francis writes with gratitude. He remembers family and friends, colleagues, fellow Jesuits, the poor, migrants, political leaders, rabbis, imams, and countless ordinary believers. He does not hide moments of conflict or misunderstanding, but his tone is never bitter. Instead, the thread of the narrative is a serene confidence that God has guided him and will guide the Church. He sees himself not as a hero but as a pilgrim among pilgrims, one who tries to encourage others to lift their eyes.
Hope is the key to everything. It is not naïve optimism but the certainty that the resurrection has already changed the course of history. Even in weakness and failure, the Christian is invited to hope, because God’s mercy is greater. For Francis, to hope is to continue to love, to work for peace, to defend the poor, and to walk together as brothers and sisters. His autobiography is therefore not only the story of a Pope but a testimony that faith in Christ makes life meaningful. “Peace is possible. I never tire of repeating it,” he insists, and in these words his life and message are summarized.
Elina Grönlund, obl.OSSS
This text is a shortened summary produced with the help of artificial intelligence, based on the original Finnish text.