Mr Ruhl looks at Pope Francis's recently published autobiography, Hope and what it does and doesn't reveal about Francis, his predecessor, and his Pontificate.
From One Peter Five
By Alan Ruhl
On January 14, 2025 Random House released Hope, an autobiography of Pope Francis. The fact that he decided to go with one of the most well known publishers in the world and not a Catholic one indicates that this biography was for the whole world and not just for us Catholics. At this point Pope Francis has occupied the Chair of Peter for 12 years. Part of me wishes that this autobiography would have come out a decade ago when few people knew anything about him, but with a 2025 release we get to see the Roman Pontiff reflect on his lengthy Papacy.
The book gives us a glimpse past the man of religion and a look at the man himself. We learn about his Italian background, his love for soccer, and his lifelong obsession with Dostoyevsky. Early on in the book he talks about an Italian ocean liner that sank off the coast of Brazil in 1927. Pope Francis’ grandparents and his father were supposed to be on this ship but since they couldn’t sell their possessions in Italy in time, they exchanged their tickets. Reflecting on this, the Pontiff says: “You can’t imagine how many times I have found myself thanking Divine Providence.”
On page 175 he quotes Luke 1:28 and the English translation uses the Protestant terminology “favored one” instead of the Catholic translation “full of grace”. Despite this blunder he does show much love through for Our Lady in several passages of his book. The most apparent is on page 51 where he remarks: “My grandmother and Father Enrique taught me with their testimony that Our Lady was in no way secondary.” On page 61 he talks about Catholics and Muslims and one thing that they have in common is their love for the Virgin Mary and how it can serve as a bridge to dialogue. Unfortunately I don’t think he was referring to the conversion of the Muslims.
Pope Francis does spend a lot of time talking about his Papacy and other current Church issues which will be of great interest to the reader. One of these is the document Fiducia Supplicans. As part of the eternal Vatican damage control on this document he emphasizes that the blessing is directed at the people and not their sinful relationship. He writes:
It is the people who are blessed, not the relationships. It arises from the wish not to ascribe one situation or one condition to the entire life of those who seek to be illuminated and accompanied with a blessing. Everyone in the Church is invited, including people who are divorced, including people who are homosexual, including people who are transgender.
Another current issue that he tackles is females potentially being admitted to the Diaconate. He references the Synod of Synodality which ended in late 2024 and states that the issue of female deacons “remains open to study”.
Throughout the rest of the book it’s the usual Pope Francis. He expresses his love for migrants. On page 162 he basically condemns all war, in contrast to the traditional Church teaching on Just War and the clear statements of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 14:31-32.
Two things in this book are of the utmost importance to Traditional Catholics. The first is the mysterious box that Pope Benedict gave to Francis on the transfer of power. The second are his comments on tradition. While these comments aren’t too different than what he has said in the past, he does make one thing very clear.
On page 205, Pope Francis writes:
At the beginning of my papacy, when I went to visit my predecessor. Benedict XVI, at Castel Gandolfo, he gave me a large white box: “Everything is in here,” he told me – documents relating to the most difficult and painful situations: cases of abuse, corruption, dark dealings, wrongdoings. “I have arrived this far, taken these actions, removed these people, now it’s your turn.” I have continued along this path.
To ram this home, there is a picture right below this paragraph where it shows Pope Benedict giving the large white box to Pope Francis. Unfortunately, this tease is all we get of the contents of the box. It isn’t elaborated on ever again, despite the important nature of the documents within. Could the contents of this box have anything to do with the mysterious resignation of Pope Benedict? It appears that this is likely the contents of the investigation initiated by Benedict in 2012 before he resigned. Unfortunately, the answer will have to be given to us by a future historian.
He comments on tradition and traditionally minded Catholics a couple times in the book. He says a lot of the usual Pope Francis things but one of them is quite telling. On page 91 and 92 he reflects on the famous Gustav Mahler quote “Tradition is not the worship of ashes; it is the preservation of fire.”
The Roman Pontiff writes:
Tradition is not a museum; it’s a guarantee for the future. The idea of continually returning to ashes is the nostalgia of fundamentalists, but this must not be the true sense of the word: Tradition, instead, is a root that is essential for the tree always to bear fruit.
This quote in an odd way is accurate but not in the way that Francis means it to be. Despite showing empathy for all sorts of marginalized groups, unlike Pope Benedict, Francis has never made any serious attempt to understand traditionalists. Traditionalists desire the liturgy of Pope Pius V promulgated in 1570 with minor modifications over the centuries, with the 1962 missal being the most recent form. Christianity existed for a millennium and a half before 1570 and traditionalists don’t desire to go back to earlier liturgies before this. We desire the Tridentine liturgy because, despite being late in Church history, the prayers contained in it safeguard the unchanging doctrine of the Church in an exceptional manner. We don’t believe that the reformed liturgy of 1969 always does this. That is our argument. We believe that a certain form of liturgy better equips us for living our Christian lives in 2025 and beyond, and for carrying out the Great Commission that Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us which is not yet complete. So the Pope is correct in one way but not in the way that he intends it to be. Hopefully he’ll realize this before he passes away. In my opinion, this is the greatest difference between Pope Benedict and Pope Francis.
Overall, there is nothing groundbreaking in this book. Whether you’re a fan of Pope Francis or hold a negative opinion, Hope won’t change your view on him. It just reveals a little more of his life. It also doesn’t give us any answers as to why his predecessor resigned, which is unfortunate.
This review does not mention the recent "Hope" book of Pope John Paul II (Crossing the Threshold of Hope, 1984, also published by Random House). The word "hope" and the basis for hope (i.e., faith) are apparently not well examined in Pope Francis' book. I would not, of course, expect a book on faith from Francis, and there's the problem. It is odd, is it not, that Francis never looks at the "traditional" Mass as Jesus does? Does the Crucified Lord accept the Novus Ordo as the best that His Church can do? I think not.
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