El Ignaciano / Junio 2025

HOPE¹
Reemberto Rodriguez

“Who am I to judge?”
“¡Todos, todos, todos!”
“Hope”
Pope Francis

A personal note
It is intensely moving - and very challenging - to attempt to write this review only days after the Pope died. So many sentiments! So sad! Yet, hopeful that the seeds he planted in our Church will yield a good harvest.

I am no theologian nor a professional writer. I share this book review as an unapologetic admirer of much of what the Pope said, did, preached, and wrote. He speaks to me. I am comforted by his stories, style, and substance. It is not lost on me that he gave it all, till the end, having celebrated Easter Sunday with the flock and then going to the Lord that very night.

I acknowledge I have a very biased opinion on Pope Franics. I deeply appreciate Pope Francis’ ‘down to earth’ way of being. I find this way of being a remarkable complement to the beauty of his predecessor Pope Benedict’s deep thinking, pious way and beautiful style. 

The book was a joy to listen to as I took my daily walks in the beautiful Sligo Creek Tail in Silver Spring, Maryland. The book Hope wears its name well. And it does not disappoint.

Contextual observations
It is impossible to view Pope Francis - or read this book - with a dualist mentality; i.e.: simplistic boxes of whether he espoused liberalism or conservatism. This book meanders through the Pope’s understanding of both tradition and modernism, from his love for the saints of days gone by to the excitement of AI today. While he gave up television a long time ago - except to watch an occasional football (soccer) match - he is very much a man of this age; and that comes through loud and clear in the book. He is also a man of our times and our hemisphere, something that makes his stories that much more relatable to many of us.

In the book, Pope Francis comes across as just a regular person with flaws and quirkiness of language that speaks plainly and is easy to listen to - though sometimes challenging to fully understand. He sometimes uses words that may at times get lost in translation. Luckily that is when our Spanish comes in handy; for example, when he notes that the roots of one of his favorite words, esperanza (hope) and esperar (to wait) are the same.

When you start getting into the book, you realize that some of the book’s chapters are actually free standing. You do not need to read the whole book to get the essence of certain chapters. The book does not consistently flow from one chapter to the other or adhere to a strict chronological order.

There’s a lot to this book. It has been reviewed by many others. Some have chosen to focus almost exclusively on the snippets of the book that have sparked loud criticism. I will not focus on that - but it is important to mention them. I want to focus this review on the essence of the book’s message: Hope. There are so many quotable quotes in this book! Beautiful. Sincere. Illuminating. Simple. Useful.

Controversial, uncomfortable and existential topics
Throughout the book, Pope Francis does indeed touch on certain controversial, uncomfortable and existential topics.

He does not shy away from controversial issues. In the book he does restate his empathetic and embracing approach to the LGBTQ+ community and women seeking a more substantive role in the Church. He also uncharacteristically chastises some of those who remain committed to the Latin mass.

The book brings forth certain topics that to many in the Church are unconformable topics best simply not discussed - and thus seldom make it to homilies. For example, he highlights Superior General Arrupe’s disdain for nuclear proliferation, something the Pope highlighted in his visit to Japan. The Pope also does not shy away from criticizing the excess of capitalism and the rampant excesses of the consumer societies.

He does open the book with the jarring story of his first Papal trip, when he visited Lampedusa, the tiny Mediterranean island that has become the outpost for hope and solidarity - but also the contradictions of migration. The Pope is relentlessly consistent in his immigration message, oftentimes repeating the need to build bridges, not walls. He asserts that the world-wide migration crisis of today exacerbates a ‘culture of indifference’, where people just stop caring for each other.  He is also consistent in abhorring the irreparable damage being done by the existential danger that uncontrolled climate change due to human activity in technologically advanced nations is causing to creation, often much more so in the poorer nations and their struggling people.

A breakdown of the book
Beginning with the introduction, the book is quintessentially Jesuit. The positive, uplifting message of “God in all things” is a consistent theme of every chapter, as when he exclaims: 

“We Christians must know that hope doesn’t deceive and doesn’t disappoint: All is born to blossom in an eternal springtime”.

The first half of the book is pure storytelling, sprinkled with philosophical observations and applicable examples. His is the life of a child of working immigrants. His is a life of mundane happenings, sports - particularly football (soccer) and such. 

It was his parents that went through the immigrant trauma of leaving one country (Italy) for another (Argentina). He was born in the pre-WWII era. He is also a product of his times, having grown up in a turbulent Argentina which undoubtedly was an integral part of what formed him. The book is full of stories from his childhood and youth. It is easy to read the book with a smile on your face and very much relate to his not always perfect ways. He beautifully interwinds philosophical messages along with his stories:

• “We live in a time when feelings we thought were lost are reappearing”.
• “We must culturally assimilate ourselves to the end.”.
• “Al mal tiempo, buena cara (spanish proverb)”.

Another strong Jesuit theme of the book is what Pope Francis coined as the need for a ‘culture of encounter’, highlighting the Jesuit’s commitment to accompany (‘acompañar’); after all, it is ‘La Compañía de Jesús’. The book is solidly grounded in the four Universal Apostolic Preferences, adopted by the Jesuits under Superior General Sosa, and confirmed by Pope Francis.

The latter parts of the book dive deep into the years of his priesthood and his personal journey to becoming Pope. 

• The day he heard the call to the priesthood: “I confessed my sins, and the priest treated me with loving kindness… The fact is that I was no longer the same, and I left with the knowledge that I would become a priest”.
• His often-used sentiment: “Misericordia (Mercy) is the word with which I identify God… Jesus said that he had come not for the just but for the sinners. Not for the healthy, who need no doctor, but for the sick.”
• One of his first words upon becoming Pope: “I am a sinner”.
• And a very telling observation, which I personally repeat often: “... the communists stole the flag from us, because the flag of the poor is Christian.”

To many of us his reference to Cardinal Shawn O’Malley having been a top contender to become Pope is heartwarming. Similarly, his loving story of how Cuba’s Cardinal Ortega embraced him early in the Conclave is especially personally meaningful. The Pope shared with Cardinal Ortega the text of what he had to read at the Conclave, which later the Cardinal shared with the flock at the Havana Cathedral. (Oh, how I wish I had been there!)

The book’s five final chapters are full of joy-filled hopeful messages, as exemplified by their titles:

• Chapter 21: The Scandal of Peace
• Chapter 22: Hand in Hand with Steadfast Child
• Chapter 23: In the Image of a God Who Smiles
• Chapter 24: For the Best Days Are Still to Come
• Chapter 25: I Am Just One Step

Sprinkled throughout these chapters there are sentiments that go to the core of our Christian, Jesus-centric Catholic values.

• “I say…: Don’t believe those who tell you that nothing can change…”
• “The truth is that a future cannot exist except in the realism, in the reasonableness, in the practicality, of sowers of peace and of hope.”
• “Hope is a medicine and a cure” But “Christian hope is infinitely more than this… It is invincible because it is not a desire. It is the certainty that we are all travelling, not toward something that we want to be there, but something that is already there.”
• “Hope never disappoints” “Optimism can be betrayed, hope can not.”
• “God can not deprive us of hope, because He can not deny himself.”
• “Now that I am old, it is children that teach me how to smile.”
• “Humor is also a genuine wisdom.”
•  “Our best days are yet to come.”
• “We must not stumble upon tomorrow, we must build it, and we all have the responsibility to do so in a way that responds to the project of God, which is none other than the happiness of mankind, the centrality of mankind, without excluding anyone.”
• “The Church always has a future.” 
• “The Church will always go on. I am just one step in its history.”
• “I dream of a papacy that is increasingly one of service and of communion.”
• “In the end of existence, we will not be asked whether we are believers; but only if we are believable.”

By re-anchoring our Christian, Catholic meaning of hope, it is as if the Pope is reminding us to not stay with the rigidity and rules of the Old Testament. But rather to complete these mandates with the love Jesus proclaimed, particularly in the Beatitudes and that Mary reaffirmed in the Magnificat. 

Conclusion
In this book Pope Francis has left us a beautiful gift. Originally the book was intended to be released after his death; it was released only three months before it. Reading this book - or listening to it as I did since reading is challenging to me - while he was still alive was a personally precious experience. And now that he has passed, reflecting on his stories, his words, and his message is exceptionally more meaningful. 

Interestingly, he concludes the book with a reference to doubt, asserting that we should not shy away from in:

• “It is no good a person saying with total certainty that they have met God. If someone has answers to all the questions, this is proof that God is not with them… The great guides of God’s people, like Moses always left space for doub.t.

But he finishes with a clear, unambiguous call to action:

• “We need to be humble, to leave space for the Lord, not for our false securities.”
• “Let us fight with tenderness and with courage.”

And then reminds us:

• “I am just one step.”

In summary, this book gives a new meaning to that challenging word, Hope.

In the words of Giovanni Battista Re as he concluded his homily* at Pope Francis’ funeral mass: “May we all ‘hold high the torch of hope’”. (*The video and transcript of the full mass is available on EWTN’s website).

Rest in peace, Pope Francis! And pray for us, that we may be good stewards of God’s creation, never losing the hope of a better world “on earth as it is in heaven.” Amen.

¹ “Hope” Autobiography of Pope Francis with Carlo Musso, translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon, Random House New York 2025.

Reemberto Rodriguez is a graduate of Georgia Tech (Architecture) and Georgia State (Community Development). Prior to retiring from Montgomery County, Maryland, government in August 2021, he served for 12 years as the Silver Spring regional director for that county. He is currently an affiliate instructor at the National Smart Growth Center of the University of Maryland where he teaches an interdisciplinary study abroad course (architecture, planning, historic preservation and economics) in Havana, and is a consultant to the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network.