Reviews - Hope | The StoryGraph

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I’m not Catholic nor religious, but I’ve found Pope Francis to be a person of great moral character and at least someone who is worth reading an autobiography about.

Much of his life was interesting, but I think the strengths in this book are his passages in between in which he discusses moral philosophy. What I found to be striking was how seemingly disconnected at times it was from Christianity, not in any moral sense, but in structure. Often he would describe a stance he held entirely on the merits of its own standing rather than defaulting to “God says it”. Though, this did happen on occasion, but literally who can fault the Pope for pulling that one sometimes.

His thoughts on war I found to be particularly well written. Obviously war is wrong, but the way Francis succinctly wrote about it made it incredibly poignant and frames it in
such a way as if you’re viewing its tragedy for the first time.

He has a quote that he uses in reference to the elite, warmongering class; “What does it matter to me?” This quote has stuck in my mind since reading it a month ago. I’ve come to think it is the perfectly summarized, petty way we have come to view tragedy in the modern world. Climate change. Loss of habitat. War. Famine. Genocide. Fascism. Cuts to healthcare, unemployment rising, cuts to foreign aid. What does it matter to me? It is the emblem of a world that is supposedly more interconnected than ever. We are meant to be more united than at any other time in human history - and I yet can’t help but think that we’ve found a way instead to allow those in power to divide us along racial, class, ethnic, and party lines. What does it matter to me? A myopic empathy poisons our well. Francis came to something so pointedly true about where we are as a society with these 6 words. To move forward, to help out neighbor and our brother and society at large, the standard of evaluation should not be the individual but the whole.

I also greatly appreciated the more human elements - hearing about his regrets in not going to see his father and turning away from visitors in the hospital is very human and humbling and I was glad to see that very human sight of him.

Overall, a decent autobiography. I wish I could’ve gotten more of his internal thoughts about his life, as while you get a decent event-based structure, often I found that it glossed over his internal feelings on the matter. Also certainly wish he had discussed each stage of his journey to the papacy in greater detail, but we did get an interesting account of his conclave on its own which stood in for my want there.

slatza's review against another edition

4.0

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

saznoz's review against another edition

4.75

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

As an Anglican/Baptist progressive Christian I found this a fascinating and honestly comforting read. I recommend any Christians to read this and also anyone who has an interest in Christianity and its current influence in the world.

splattergunk's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

I'm not Catholic, which really shouldn't be important for me to even mention upon reviewing this book, but I still felt a certain lightness and hope while reading this. There's something in the words and the translation of Pope Francis' writings that inspires community and kindness. His teachings and principals are very universal and basic, but biblically centered and extremely meaningful.

I feel people within Catholicism and even other sects of Christianity who are quick to judge and not love their neighbors as they should would do well to read this and remind themselves what Bible and the Church is really about.