Vatican City, 28 January, 2025 / 1:00 pm (ACI Africa).
“Hope is the mainstay that undergirds Pope Francis’ entire life and is the thread that holds together this long narrative, even in the pages in which he recounts true horrors,” commented Carlo Musso, the Italian editor of Pope Francis’ autobiographical work “Hope,” getting right to the point regarding the theological virtue so fundamental to the life of the pontiff.
The volume was to be published after the Holy Father’s death, but at the last moment he changed his mind, Musso told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, in an interview: “His idea was to publish a posthumous book, but then the 2025 Jubilee of Hope came along and became a propitious occasion to bring it to light,” he explained.
In the volume, which was released Jan. 14, the Holy Father makes clear the great difference between optimism — something more fleeting, which may be here today and gone tomorrow — and hope, which he understands as an active force.
The book is the fruit of a six-year process — until very recently secret — to put the Holy Father’s memoirs into writing. “In the autobiography, the reader will obviously be able to get a look into his personal life, his priestly life, and the entire pontificate. But it’s clear that hope has been the glue that holds them together, because even in difficulties, in tragedy, Pope Francis always sends a concrete and invincible message of hope,” the editor said.
“Hope” compiles conversations, messages, and texts that the Holy Father provided him. “I then wrote a first draft and then we went over it together for accuracy,” Musso related, making it clear that the pope didn’t steer clear of any topic: “He gave absolute freedom, without red lines.”