The pope francis biography book untying
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It is both challenging and illuminating.
There was none of the respectful mourning that accompanies the death of a preceding pope to temper the frenzied speculation when Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio stepped out onto the balcony. The focus is on Bergoglio the Jesuit provincial, and then Bergoglio as bishop and cardinal. It expresses succinctly but also with a certain profundity the challenge at hand.
Perhaps with one eye on the commercial advantages of releasing instalments in other publications, Vallely has already allowed excerpts to appear in The Tablet and The Times. Vallely’s sources are secondary; the book was produced after a whistle-stop tour of Argentina, and perhaps is too reliant on a limited set of interviews with Jesuits and other companions of Bergoglio.
Now the dramatic arc of the screenplay of Bergoglio’s life takes an upswing, and there are faint whiffs of hagiography as the saint-in-the-making begins his ascent through the ranks of the hierarchy. He has shown the world a different way of being a Catholic.'
Pope Francis: Untying the Knots: The Biography of Pope Francis and the Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism - Updated Edition
Benedict XVI’s decision to resign the papacy in February 2013 meant that the world’s introduction to Pope Francis took place in rather unusual circumstances.
They were persuaded by Bergoglio to turn around and go back to Spain, thus preserving the integrity of the order, which is a source of pride to many Jesuits.
Towards the end of the first part of the book, the author starts to bring out many of the quiet, courageous and heroic acts of Bergoglio the provincial. However, I also look forward to a second edition in a few years’ time, with a more nuanced tone at times and an updating of Pope Francis’ legacy – which will, I hope, include accounts of deep reforms in the Church.
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This Spanish-language biography has the advantage over Vallely’s book because its source material is firsthand, acquired through conversation with the then-Cardinal Bergoglio.However, I may be being too sensitive – as a Jesuit, I have become quite protective of the first Jesuit pope and maybe I lack a certain objectivity.
The second part of the book turns the corner and launches ‘the people’s bishop’: he leads a life of simplicity, poverty and integrity, and has the remorse and compassion of a humble man who is anchored in a daily rhythm of prayer.
It is easy to paint the young provincial as out-of-step with the other Latin American provinces in the heady post-Vatican II days, but that does not fit comfortably with a fascinating detail which Vallely, to his credit, also includes. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith.’ This would have resonated with Bergoglio, reflecting on his bruising time as a young provincial in a country divided by a brutal military regime and a murderous communist insurgency.
Pope Francis: Untying the Knots
About this ebook
'...a superb guide into one of the most pivotal personalities of the 21st century' - Publishers Weekly
'An exhaustive look at the newest pope ... It refers to an image of Our Lady that Jorge Bergoglio SJ brought back to Argentina from Germany, where he had been sent for further studies after his controversial stint as Provincial of the Argentinian Jesuits.
Perhaps this is a result of the inevitable temptation – particularly when trying to exploit a timely and possibly fleeting gap in the market – to write a contemporary biography with the cadences of a film script, appealing to the modern attention span with crises and cliff-hangers. A favourite moment for me is the account of the general congregation that preceded the conclave at which Bergoglio was elected and his influential intervention there.
Vallely is an excellent, well-connected writer, and Pope Francis: Untying the Knots is an engaging and thoughtful read throughout.
During this period of exile, he was struck by a painting of Our Lady Untier of Knots that he stumbled upon in Bavaria. He turns out to be a good ‘untier’ of the knots – or at least what seem, at a rushed first glance, to be knots. They do appear as an afterthought, though, which gives some sense of the book being unbalanced. The iconic Jesuit General Pedro Arrupe trusted and sent Bergoglio to intercept an ultra-conservative Spanish splinter-group of Jesuits who were coming to Rome to make demands that could have given rise to a schism.
According to Vallely, Bergoglio’s time in Germany was unhappy; he missed his beloved country, especially his hometown of Buenos Aires. However, working under considerable constraints, Vallely has done an impressive job.
The second part of the book’s title – ‘Untying the Knots’ – is a stroke of genius.