When Jorge Bergoglio, S.J., was elected in the conclave of 2013, I was working at Orbis Books, a Catholic press sponsored by the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers that has a long history of publishing important works by Latin American scholars. This Argentine Jesuit, we thought, was our kind of author. It was quickly decided that we should commission a (quick) book on him. Or by him.
Then we found out: We weren’t alone.
Everyone from the smallest Catholic press to the secular publishing behemoths who usually focused on trade books wanted a piece of the intriguing new pontiff. We also learned that “quick” is a relative term: I swear not two months had passed after his election before the first biography of Pope Francis appeared. It has been followed by literally dozens of biographies, memoirs and papal quote compendiums in the years since—each claiming to be the definitive one, natch. Pope Francis even has an author page at America.
The magazine has also reviewed quite a few of those books over the last dozen years, including a 2014 triple review by Peter Steinfels of three of the earliest biographies to come out, by Austen Ivereigh, Paul Vallely and Elisabetta Piqué. All three, Steinfels wrote, added important new insights: “After endless news articles, interviews, and collections of the pope’s own words, is there anything new to learn about Pope Francis? The answer, as demonstrated by the sharply conflicting interpretations of his role in the Synod on the Family, is clearly yes.” In 2019, Ivereigh published another biography, Wounded Shepherd, which Bill McCormick, S.J., reviewed for America.
What we all also found out about Pope Francis was that he was himself a great lover of literature: He peppered his homilies, talks and even encyclicals with literary references from Dostoyevsky, Proust, Hopkins and Dante, but also from more mainstream fare like The Betrothed and Lord of the World. In his famous interview with Antonio Spadaro, S.J., published in America in September 2013 as “A Big Heart Open to God,” the new pope made it clear that an appreciation of the arts was an important element of his own spirituality—and his hopes for the church:
When does a formulation of thought cease to be valid? When it loses sight of the human or even when it is afraid of the human or deluded about itself. The deceived thought can be depicted as Ulysses encountering the song of the Siren, or as Tannhäuser in an orgy surrounded by satyrs and bacchantes, or as Parsifal, in the second act of Wagner’s opera, in the palace of Klingsor. The thinking of the church must recover genius and better understand how human beings understand themselves today, in order to develop and deepen the church’s teaching.
Former America board member Mario Paredes had the future pope as his literature professor in college in Buenos Aires in the late 1960s. He recalled Bergoglio as “an exceptional teacher” but on the formal side. “He was very polite but never smiled. Nevertheless, his lessons were very entertaining because of the breadth of his knowledge,” Paredes told Aleteia in 2019. “He used to quote writers easily from memory; it was fascinating. His presentations were also punctuated by numerous and varied references to painting, music, etc. He’s a multifaceted man.”
Wondering what the pontiff liked to read in his spare time? America’s Colleen Dulle put together a “Pope Francis Summer Reading List” in 2021. We also then asked our readers to recommend some books for him.
Just last year, Pope Francis wrote a letter to priests and seminarians encouraging them to read more. “Often during periods of boredom on holiday, in the heat and quiet of some deserted neighborhood, finding a good book to read can provide an oasis that keeps us from other choices that are less wholesome,” the pope wrote. “Likewise, in moments of weariness, anger, disappointment or failure, when prayer itself does not help us find inner serenity, a good book can help us weather the storm until we find peace of mind.”
That same year, Pope Francis suggested that Catholic theologians could benefit from expanding their own reading and intellectual frameworks. One antidote to the oversimplification or ossification of theology, he said, “could be found in developing cross-disciplinary approaches to theological reflection, such as studying theology in conjunction with philosophy, literature, the arts, mathematics, physics, history, law, politics and economics.”
In 2021, Pope Francis even paraphrased Shakespeare in an appeal to world leaders not to ignore the realities of climate change. “I suggest we adapt Hamlet’s famous ‘to be or not to be’ and affirm: ‘To see or not to see, that is the question!’ Where it starts is with each one’s seeing, yes, mine and yours,” he wrote.
Perhaps a different phrase from that same play is our best way to say goodbye to our beloved Holy Father, who died on Easter Monday and will be buried this coming Saturday:
Now cracks a noble heart.
Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
•••
Our poetry selection for this week is “Matins,” by Jerry Harp. Readers can view all of America’s published poems here.
Members of the Catholic Book Club: We are taking a hiatus while we retool the Catholic Book Club and pick a new selection.
In this space every week, America features reviews of and literary commentary on one particular writer or group of writers (both new and old; our archives span more than a century), as well as poetry and other offerings from America Media. We hope this will give us a chance to provide you with more in-depth coverage of our literary offerings. It also allows us to alert digital subscribers to some of our online content that doesn’t make it into our newsletters.
Other Catholic Book Club columns:
The spiritual depths of Toni Morrison
Doris Grumbach, L.G.B.T. pioneer and fearless literary critic
Pat Conroy: ‘I left the Church but she has not left me.’
Moira Walsh and the art of a brutal movie review
Father Hootie McCown: Flannery O’Connor’s Jesuit bestie and spiritual advisor
Happy reading!
James T. Keane
