Pope Francis opens up in his autobiography “Hope”

LExegeses of the life and work of Pope Francis will not learn much from his autobiography, Hopeco-written with Carlo Musso, which is released this Wednesday in more than 100 countries, and in France by Albin Michel editions. Since his election to the Throne of Saint Peter on March 13, 2013, Jorge Bergoglio has spoken a lot, publishing up to several books per year, or responding to long interviews, notably to his Argentine biographers Francesca Ambrogetti and Sergio Rubin – for their book The shepherdundoubtedly the best bio of the pope, following The Jesuit written in 2010 – or with the Frenchman Dominique Wolton or, of course, with the Jesuit Antonio Spadaro, the director of the journal Catholic Civilization.

The fact remains that this book is touching, because Pope Francis discusses at length a life rich in twists and turns, punctuated by astonishing and edifying encounters, which explains his choice of priestly career and many of his positions. The sovereign pontiff also paints a portrait of the Church that he tried to put in place, without pushing the reforms to the end. Here are the highlights.

Why Francis is so close to migrants

If the Pope has made the defense of migrants one of the major causes of his pontificate, it is because he carries their destiny in his genes. The story is known, but in his autobiography, François returns at length to the adventure which led his Italian grandparents from the Piedmontese countryside to Buenos Aires in 1929. They had narrowly escaped the sinking of the ship on which they were to embark… “My grandparents and their only son, Mario, the young man who would become my father, had bought tickets for this long crossing, and their ship , THE Mafaldawas to leave the port of Genoa on October 11, 1927 for Buenos Aires, says François. But they weren’t on board. Despite their best efforts, they had not managed to sell everything they owned. Finally, reluctantly, the Bergoglios had to change their tickets and delay their departure for Argentina. This is why I am here today. »

Football, a school of life

Everyone knows that the Pope loves football, and follows the championship closely. He describes himself as a poor player, a “pata dura” as he says funny – “which means I had two left feet,” he emphasizes. But it was through playing that he learned his lessons, in a way. “I was a goalkeeper most of the time, but that too is a great job: it gets you used to looking reality in the face, to facing problems; We don’t always know exactly where the ball came from, but we still have to try to catch it. Like in life.” Sport, as a school, “an excellent opportunity to learn to give the best of oneself, to even sacrifice oneself, and above all not to do it alone”.

For an inclusive Church… but not too much

This pope of openness recalls his credo in this matter. First, during his pontificate, he is the one who promoted several women to positions of responsibility – even if there is still progress to be made… “The Church is a woman, it is not a man, says François. We clergy are men, but we are not the Church. » And the pope affirmed, regarding the Church: “One of the greatest sins we have committed was to “masculinize” it. » The pope intends to “promote from all points of view the presence of lay people and religious in the process of training new priests”, and wishes to keep under study “the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry” but in specifying that this requires “great discernment”.

ALSO READ In Corsica, Pope Francis vibrates the land of “popular piety”In any case, there is no openness to the hypothesis of the ordination of women to the priesthood, nor to the celibacy of clerics. He returns to the Fiducia supplicans declaration on “blessings to irregular couples” to (re)clarify: “We bless people, not relationships”. Emphatically emphasizing: “Everyone is invited to the Church, including divorced people, homosexual people, transgender people.” He speaks out against the “more than sixty countries in the world which criminalize homosexuals and transsexuals”: ​​“Homosexuality is not a crime, it is a human fact”. But denounces gender theory in strong words: “All ideological colonization is extremely dangerous.” And GPA: “Men and women are not parts of a mechanical gear, nor are they a simple sum of demands or desires, without conscience and without will. »

Against a Church of nostalgia

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If he authorizes the mass in Latin, Francis stands against all forms of traditionalism, where the liturgy becomes “ideology”, “rigidity” which “is accompanied by sophisticated and expensive toilets, lace, ribbons, chasubles”. “Ostentation of clericalism”, “sectarian worldliness”… Bergoglio hits. “Christians are not those who go back,” he asserts. “The Church cannot be the congregation of the “good old days” which, as a French thinker, Michel Serres, reminds us, are over and were not necessarily as beautiful as we imagine.” And knock!

Faced with his own death, “an extremely pragmatic attitude”

His autobiography takes the form of a testament. On page 259, Pope Francis even specifies his wishes for his funeral. The one who preferred to live during his pontificate in the austere Sainte-Marthe residence rather than in the papal apartments asked to be buried not in Saint-Pierre – like his predecessors – but in the basilica of Sainte-Marie-Majeure. “The Vatican is the house of my last service, not that of eternity,” says the Holy Father. Who wants to rest “in the room where the candelabra are kept today” after a simplified funeral. “The funeral ritual,” says the Pope, “was overloaded and I asked the master of ceremonies to lighten it: no catafalque, no ceremony for the closing of the cypress coffin. Nor shall the latter be placed in a second of lead and a third of oak.” Jorge Bergoglio, although he has become Pope Francis, wants “a dignified funeral, but like any Christian: because the Bishop of Rome is a pastor and a disciple, he is not one of the powerful of this world”.