Hope: The Autobiography

Hope vividly recreates the colorful world where the young Jorge Mario Bergoglio grew up * The New York Times *Vivid and sensitive … Francis is keenly conscious of his roots in a history of migration and a society of very diverse cultural strands… . Powerful and moving … This book is at its best when the Pope speaks directly from his first-hand experience of contact with the vulnerable, and he has a gift for bringing these encounters vividly to life * The New Statesman *For fans of Conclave, there’s quite the inside story of the real thing in 2013 in the Pope’s new autobiography… . The Pope who emerges from this book is an attractive figure * The London Standard *

Born in Buenos Aires on December 17, 1936, the son of Italian migrants, the first of five children born in the working-class barrio of Flores, Jorge Mario Bergoglio qualified as a chemical technician, graduated in philosophy in 1963, and became a priest in 1969. He was appointed provincial of the Jesuits of Argentina in 1973, and was named auxiliary bishop in 1992, archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and created cardinal in 2001. In 2013, he became the Bishop of Rome and the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.