Book Review: The Great Reformer

There have been a number of biographies already, of Francis. What is astounding is how the writers have all been swept along by the charm, the love and the godliness that flow from the man. Austen Ivereigh is no exception, and if you read the book, you will probably succumb also.

Even to a crusty old atheist it is obvious there is something very special happening in the Catholic church today. And the wonder of it is that Francis quite easily extends his reach to rabbis and sheikhs (with his vision of an Islamic Jesus; while the rabbi of the primary synagogue in Bueneos Aires described the Cardinal, later Pope Francis, as “my rabbi” so close was their spiritual understanding). Ecumenical used to mean Protestants and Catholics; today it even includes Evangelicals!

His parents crossed the Atlantic from Italy in the 1930’s – it was either going to be New York or Buenos Aires. The family was devout, and the young Jorge told his first love “if he did not become a priest he would marry her”. He and his friends hung out at a bar, shot pool, danced all night at house parties, and were at mass at 8am the next day. One recalls “he was a great tango dancer, he liked tangos a lot”. There is no shortage of hands up to say I remember Francis, and the author has done a wonderful job of weaving their testaments into his story.

Argentina has a state religion, Catholicism. The bishops are paid by the state, and as recently as 1987 the state vetoed the appointment of a radical bishop in Buenos Aires. The country dives from liberal nationalism to military dictatorship and revolutionary guerrillas at a dizzying pace. To rise to be a bishop, an archbishop, and a cardinal in that hotbed requires a cool political head, which will later be put to good use in the Roman curia. The author wrote his doctorate at Oxford on Catholicism and Politics in Argentina so be prepared for a thorough treatment of that world, and of Jorge Borgoglio’s not uncontroversial path through it.

After serving as a teacher in the seminary where he had studied, he became bishop in the industrial area where he grew up, with large slums of poor migrants from across the continent. Here his strong pastoral creed deepened; his love reaches out to the destitute, the prostitutes, the imprisoned, the children. He looks to the poor to find expressions of faith, to find pointers for how to live and to love. He continues to do that now that the world is his parish. We can expect great things from this man.

Impartiality is not what you want from this book, and you will not get it. You will get a thoroughly researched and detailed coverage of the whole life of Francis, up to the first part of his papacy. The integrity of the author is obvious, as is his mastery of the whole context of the Latin American and the global church, and of Vatican politics. The writing is clear, and strong, and tells a human story. You will get to know this extraordinary man called Francis, and his theology, his faith, his vision, his humility, and his godliness. This atheist could not put it down.