Pope Francis, increasingly weak at the age of 87, takes a journey through his memories and talks about his hopes for the future of the Catholic Church in a new book that reflects on his life and its intersection with historical events.
“Life: My Story Through History,” a memoir written with Italian journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona and published by HarperCollins, will go on sale March 19, the 11th anniversary of Francis’ inauguration as the first Latin American pope .
Although it offers little new, the 230-page book is a relaxed, conversation-style read, starting with his childhood in Buenos Aires to the present day.
It is punctuated by events such as the Second World War, the Holocaust, the Cold War, the landing of man on the Moon in 1969, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the resignation of Pope Benedict 16 in 2013.
Francisco, whose health has recently shown signs of fragility with successive attacks of bronchitis, a series of hospital admissions and difficulty walking, repeats that he has no intention of resigning like his predecessor, unless “a serious physical impediment arises”.
He jokes that while some of his conservative critics “maybe expected” him to announce his resignation after a hospital stay, there is little or no risk of that happening because “there are many projects to be carried out, God willing.”
He again defends his recent decision to allow blessings for individuals in same-sex relationships, reiterating that they are not blessings for the union itself, but for those “who seek the Lord but are rejected or persecuted.”
The Church, he says, “does not have the power to change the sacraments created by the Lord” and that “this (the blessings) does not mean that the Church is in favor of same-sex marriage.”
Addressing the controversy over the recent decision, he says: “I imagine a mother Church that embraces and welcomes everyone, even those who feel they are wrong and have been judged by us in the past.”
Throughout the book, he draws on historical events as a backdrop to make appeals related to current, sometimes similar, situations.
Speaking about the Second World War, he writes that even today “Jews continue to be stereotyped and persecuted. This is not Christian; It’s not even human. When will we understand that these are our brothers and sisters?”
Reflecting on the September 11 attacks on the United States carried out by Islamic extremist militants, he writes: “It is blasphemy to use the name of God to justify the massacre, the murder, the terrorist attack, the persecution of individuals and entire populations — as some still do. No one can call on the name of the Lord to cause evil.”
On the lighter side, he talks about the controversial “Hand of God” goal by fellow Argentine Diego Maradona in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final against England, which the referee allowed, presumably because he did not realize that the player had used his hand .
Years later, when Maradona visited the pope in the Vatican, “I jokingly asked him: ‘So which hand is at fault?’” Francis writes.
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