Pope Francis’ autobiography ‘Hope’ is out this week

Pope Francis greets pilgrims from his wheelchair during the Saturday jubilee audience in the Vatican’s audience hall on Jan. 11, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Madrid, Spain, Jan 14, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

“Hope,” the autobiography of Pope Francis, hit the shelves of Italian bookstores Tuesday and will be on sale starting Jan. 16 in more than 100 countries.

The book marks the first time a pope has provided a first-person narration of the episodes that have marked his entire life, in this case from his childhood in Argentina in a family of Italian immigrants to becoming the successor of St. Peter.

Published by Random House in its 320-page English edition, the book is the result of six years of work and was written with the collaboration of journalist Carlo Musso, who helped the Holy Father tell his story.

In addition to his memoirs, in the book the pope takes up issues such as war and peace, immigration, the environmental crisis, social policy, sexuality, and the future of the Catholic Church. All of this under the rubric of hope, a theme that is also being highlighted during the 2025 Jubilee.

In a recent interview, Pope Francis said the book was originally planned to be published following his death. “But since I’m not dying (he laughs), they’re afraid that it will lose relevance and they decided to do it now,” the Holy Father explained last December in a conversation with Argentine journalist Bernarda Llorente.

The pontiff, according to the excerpts released by the publishing house, begins his memoirs with an episode that marked his destiny: the sinking of the transatlantic ship Princesa Mafalda, known as the “Italian Titanic.”

His grandparents, together with his father, Mario, bought tickets to sail on the ship that left Genoa on Oct. 11, 1927, bound for Buenos Aires. However, they ultimately didn’t board the vessel because they were unable to sell their belongings in time. “That’s why I am here now; you can’t imagine how many times I have thanked Divine Providence for it,” the pontiff recounts in his autobiography.

He also brings up memories from his childhood at “531 Membrillar Street” in the Flores neighborhood of Buenos Aires, as well as the friendships he forged there, including with a prostitute known as “La Parota,” who decided to change her life and leave the streets to care for the elderly.

‘Healthy irony’ as a medicine to counter narcissism

The Holy Father devotes a large amount of space in his autobiography to reflecting on the value of a sense of humor to deal with sadness and “healthy irony” as a medicine to counter narcissism.

“Irony is medicine, not only to elevate and enlighten others but also for oneself, because self-irony is a powerful tool to overcome the temptation of narcissism. Narcissists continually look in the mirror, they get all primped up, they observe themselves over and over again, but the best advice in front of a mirror is always to laugh at oneself. It will do us good,” the pope comments in the book.

Throughout its pages, the reader will even find some jokes told by the pope himself. The Italian newspaper Avvenire gave a preview of one of them:

“And they also told me one that concerns me directly, that of Pope Francis in America. It goes more or less like this: As soon as he lands at the New York airport for his apostolic trip to the United States, Pope Francis finds an enormous limousine waiting for him. He is a little embarrassed by all that pomp, but then he thinks that he hasn’t driven in ages, and never a car like that, and in short he says to himself: Well, when will I get another chance? He looks at the limousine and asks the driver: ‘Would you let me try it?’ And the driver: ‘Look, I’m really sorry, Your Holiness, but I just can’t do it, you know the procedures, the protocols…’ 

“But you know how they say the pope is when he gets something into his head; in short he insists and insists, until the guy gives in. Pope Francis then gets behind the wheel on one of those major streets and … gets a taste for it, starts to press on the accelerator: going 50, 80, 120… Until a siren is heard and a police car pulls up alongside him and stops him. 

“A young policeman approaches the tinted window, the slightly intimidated pope rolls it down and the man turns pale. ‘Excuse me a minute,’ he says, and goes back to his car to call the station. ‘Chief… I think I have a problem.’ And the chief says, ‘What problem?’ ‘Well, I stopped a car for speeding… but there’s a really important guy in it.’ ‘How important? Is he the mayor?’ ‘No, chief, more than the mayor…’ ‘And who is more than the mayor? The governor?’ ‘No, more…’ ‘But is he the president?’ ‘More, I think…’ ‘And who could possibly be more important than the president?’ ‘Look, chief, I don’t know exactly who he is, but I’ll just tell you that the pope is his chauffeur!’”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.