Editor of Pope Francis’ autobiography assured that he gave him “absolute freedom”

“Hope is the skeleton that structures the entire life of Pope Francis and is the thread that sustains this entire long narrative, even in the pages in which he tells true horrors.” The Italian editor Carlo Musso, who signs the book Esperanza Together with Francis, he is emphatic when he speaks of this fundamental theological virtue in the life of the Pontiff.

The volume was going to be published after the death of the Holy Father, but at the last moment he changed his mind. “His idea was to publish a posthumous book, but then the Jubilee of Hope arrived, which became a favorable occasion to bring it to light,” he adds.

The Holy Father makes clear in the volume the great difference between optimism – something more temporary, which may be there today and not tomorrow – and hope, which he understands as an active power.

The volume is the fruit of six years of process – until very recently secret – to put the Holy Father’s memories in writing. “In the autobiography, the reader will obviously be able to peek into his personal life, his priestly life and the entire pontificate. But it is clearly seen that hope has been the glue that kept them together, because even in difficulties, in tragedy, Pope Francis always sends a concrete and invincible message of hope,” he says.

Esperanza He thus collects conversations, messages and texts that the Holy Father provided him. “Then I wrote a first draft which was followed by a common verification work,” details Muso, who makes it clear that the Pontiff never shied away from any topic: “He gives absolute freedom, without red lines.”

“This journey began in 2019 and finally ended at the beginning of December 2024, when the Pope created 21 new cardinals who once again demonstrated his vision of a universal Church,” he explains.

The Italian editor – who has come to know Pope Francis in all his human dimension – points out that he is “a man born in 1936 who only looks back to push his gaze even further forward.”

Throughout 400 pages, the Pontiff narrates in first person the vital twists and turns that have marked his 88 years, from his childhood in Argentina in a family of Italian emigrants to becoming the successor of Saint Peter.

It all begins with a terrifying episode: the shipwreck of the ocean liner Princesa Mafalda, known as the Italian Titanic. His grandparents, along with his father Mario, had bought the tickets to travel on the ship that left Genoa on October 11, 1927, heading to Buenos Aires.

However, they finally did not board because they were not able to sell their belongings in time. “That is why I am here now, you cannot imagine how many times I have thanked Divine Providence,” Pope Francis explains in the book.

For Musso, this episode influenced his “sensitivity” on this issue. As well as many others who have marked his teaching as the cruelty of war or the tendency to open paths in interreligious dialogue. “His personal experience of the brotherhood is clearly seen, when he says that it was common for him to interact with Muslims and Jews,” says Musso.

In the last chapter, Pope Francis imagines the future of the Church, which “will continue forward, for I am but a step.” “I dream of a papacy that is increasingly helpful and communal,” he writes.

The Holy Father predicts, among other things, that the Catholic Church “will become increasingly universal and its future and strength will also come from Latin America, Asia, India, Africa and that can already be seen in the wealth of vocations.” ”.

He also proposes that the Church and Catholics grow “in creativity, in understanding of the challenges of contemporary times, opening themselves to dialogue and not closing themselves in fear.”

For all this, Musso assures that the memory of Pope Francis is, in reality, “a present that never stops passing, that is why it is not just a narration of the past.” “Esperanza It is his legacy for humanity,” he concluded.