François, the individual in focus.
**"Friggin' Pope Francis" Bids Farewell on an Easter Monday, awaiting His Own Resurrection
I just wrapped up Hope (Albin Michel, 2025, 400 pages), ol' Popey-O's autobiography, over Easter weekend. I wish he'd stuck around a while longer, but I guess he couldn't resist the call to join Jesus in Heaven.
Hope dishes out a juicytidbit right off the bat - Jorge Mario Bergoglio wasn't some holy visionary. Nah, he was just a regular Joe, with a good dose of Christian faith to guide him.
Throughout his life and thoughts, Pope Francis exemplified the spirit of an everyday believer. He humbly shares his story of his call to the priesthood: "Don't think that on that day in September [1953] I remained struck, as if with a permanent mark."
Nope, it wasn't some divine intervention or heavenly miracle. Just time, reflection, and an open mind.
Straightforward and Authentic
Of course, the Pope acknowledges the role of the Divine in his call to the priesthood - "faith is above all a divine grace," he notes. But he insists that faith is also a human activity - "and therefore a cultural activity."
If there's any divine Miracle in history, it's not through an interventionist God, but through transmission. The Pope shares that he received "the first Christian announcement" from his paternal grandmother, and it was beautiful because he learned "to believe as one learns to speak," in all simplicity.
He puts the kibosh on those who want to revive the traditional Latin Mass with all the pomp and circumstance. A Pope pontificates; Pope Francis wanted to inspire by example. He was all about walking the walk.
Politics With a Side of Faith
The only absolute certainty Francis claims in this memoir: "God is in the life of each individual. [...] He offers us the hope of a new life."
This message was for everyone, of course, but his heart belonged to the downtrodden. He was crystal clear about that. "To distance oneself from this identification," he writes, "is to dilute the Revelation, to mystify the Gospel, to turn it into folklore, ostentation, and not a presence."
You could argue that Catholicism doesn't push specific political ideas. But any politics that doesn't address the needs of the poor and oppressed is anti-Christian, according to Popey-O. He even goes so far as to admit that "the communists stole our banner, because the banner of the poor is Christian."
A Theologian of the People, With a Marxist Twist
Francis was no saint or extraordinary believer. "I am a sinner," he said. "That's the most honest assessment."
On sensitive issues like women's and LGBTQ rights in the Church, one could sense that Francis would have liked to go further, but he held back to keep the peace. Shame.
Popey-O, of course, was a Catholic. But this autobiography reveals he was one who shared the hopes, fears, and doubts of the believers. He received the gift of faith from his family, which transformed his life, and he wanted to pass it on, because the hope and love he carried every day were the salt of the earth, of life.
"In the end," he writes in Hope, "a sad Christian is always a sad Christian." Christian hope, with Francis, didn't have a funereal face. With him, brotherly love took precedence over paternalism. He inspired, he didn't impose. I dug him."
An in-depth exploration of Pope Francis's political ideology will be published in Presence Info next week.
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- The Pope, in his autobiography, shares that faith is a divine grace and a human activity, advocating for a Faith grounded in both the Divine and culture.
- Pope Francis received his first religious teachings from his paternal grandmother, likening the process to learning to speak.
- The Pope's memoir suggests that he was more interested in inspiring by example, distancing himself from the pomp and circumstance of the traditional Latin Mass.
- Pope Francis expresses a strong emphasis on the needs of the poor and oppressed in his political ideology, asserting that any politics that does not address their needs is anti-Christian.
