THE AMERICA ONE NEWS
Jun 6, 2025  |  
0
 | Remer,MN
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge.
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge and Reasoning Support for Fantasy Sports and Betting Enthusiasts.
back  
topic
NYTimes
New York Times
13 Jan 2025
Elisabetta Povoledo


NextImg:Pope Francis’ Autobiography, Long in the Making, Arrives in Bookstores

“I like punctuality, it’s a virtue I have learned to appreciate,” Pope Francis writes in the fifth chapter of his autobiography, to be published on Tuesday in 18 languages, adding that he considers it “a sign of good manners and respect, to arrive promptly.”

Unfortunately, as a newborn, Francis writes, he arrived a week late, necessitating a call to the doctor, who sat on his mother’s stomach and began to “to press and to ‘jump about’’’ to induce his birth.

“And so it was that I came into the world,” Francis writes.

“Hope: The Autobiography,” by Pope Francis — a 320-page compendium of the pope’s memories and musings on the major social and political issues of our times, including climate change, poverty, immigration, arms control and war — is billed by its English-language publisher, Random House, as an “historic publication” and “the first memoir to be published by a Pope.”

That is not technically true. That honor belongs to Pope Pius II’s 15th Century chronicles, “The Commentaries,” a 13-book account of his life that is considered a seminal text in Renaissance humanism.

Francis is also not the first pope to share his life story. As a cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger wrote an autobiography which was published in 1997, eight years before he became Pope Benedict XVI, and both he and his predecessor, John Paul II, coauthored books with journalists that were personal reflections and not official papal documents.

Image
Pope Francis during Group of 7 meetings in Savelletri, Italy, last June.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.