Pope Francis’ Memoir to be Published in January

by CNS · October 17, 2024

The cover of “Hope,” described as an autobiography by Pope Francis, is seen Oct. 16, 2024, the date an Italian publisher announced its worldwide publication Jan. 14, including by Viking in the United Kingdom. (CNS photo/courtesy Viking)

By Cindy Wooden, CNS – An Italian publisher announced the global release in January of “Hope,” a book it described as Pope Francis’ autobiography, which the pope apparently planned to have released only after his death.

Mondadori, the Italian publisher coordinating the global release, announced the publication on Oct. 16 at the Frankfurt Book Fair and said it would be released in 80 countries on Jan. 14.

Viking, an imprint of Penguin General, will publish “Hope” in the United Kingdom, while Random House will publish it in the United States and Penguin Random House Canada will publish it in Canada.

Mondadori said Pope Francis began working on the book with Italian editor Carlo Musso in 2019 with the understanding it would be published only after his death, but the Holy Year 2025 and its focus on hope led him to permit the early release of “this precious legacy.”

“With a wealth of revelations and unpublished stories, moving and very human, poignant and dramatic, but also capable of real humour, Pope Francis’ memoir starts off in the early years of the 20th century with the story of his Italian roots and his ancestors’ adventure of emigration to Latin America, moving on to his childhood, adolescence, choice of vocation, adult life, covering the whole of his papacy up to the present day,” said a press release from Viking.

“Pope Francis deals unsparingly with some of the crucial moments of his papacy,” Viking said. The pope “writes candidly, fearlessly and prophetically about some of the most important and controversial questions of our present times,” including war and peace, migration, climate change, the role of women and “the future of the church and of religion in general.”