The Great Reformer

October 20, 2014
Pope Francis is a complex human being, as Catholics are discovering. Ivereigh, a journalist, Catholic commentator, and former advisor to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, is the ideal papal biographer. He provides a detailed and well-written examination of Pope Francis, starting with his youth in Argentina. Young Jorge, the child of Italian immigrants, was strongly influenced by his grandmother Rosa. She provided him with an ideal example of an intelligent, prayerful woman, and she believed it important to live one’s faith by working for social justice. This relationship, as well as several others, helped the future pontiff open his heart to the poor in his country and, eventually, world-wide. Bergoglio has developed into a pope who shakes things up, does not put up with complacency, and truly believes that faith, lived authentically, can change the world. With its wealth of biographical information that offers an in-depth look at formative influences, this is the best examination of the current pope to date.

October 15, 2014
An admiring defense of the new pope, who is not afraid to shake things up.A British journalist and co-founder of the worldwide media project Catholic Voices, Ivereigh brushes aside any "false idea" that the former Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (b. 1936) ever held conservative views and takes great pains to show he has been a lifelong reformer. When he was ordained a priest in 1969 at the age of 32, Bergoglio was deeply influenced by the reforms instigated by the Second Vatican Council. Moreover, as a young priest, Bergoglio fused important relationships with formative political currents of the day, such as Marxism and Peronism-e.g., he gave "spiritual support" at Salvador University in Buenos Aires to leaders of the Guardia de Hierro ("Iron Guard"), which advocated for the original worker-based Peronist platform. Ivereigh insists that Bergoglio's sympathy for the "popular values of the pueblo fiel did not make him a party activist." During the so-called Dirty War in Argentina of the late 1970s, many close to the priest were "disappeared," and the author asserts that Bergoglio actively worked to protect the victims and fellow Jesuits, contrary to the barbs launched by Horacio Verbitsky in his book El Silencio. Yet Ivereigh also notes Bergoglio's ability to "play his cards very close to his chest." Always eager to put forth a pastoral rather than ideological approach, Bergoglio is a deeply intuitive and well-read teacher, constantly warning against "worldliness" and increasingly attuned to charismatic spirituality. The author maintains that Bergoglio is a master of forging consensus-e.g., in the wrangling over the Argentinian same-sex legislation of 2010; he officially denounced it but left open a possibility of "revising and extending the concept of civil unions." Elected to the papacy in February 2013, Francis promises to continue forging his particular brand of humility and resoluteness. A quick, efficient job of fairly sketching this extraordinary life.

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October 1, 2014

The Roman Catholic Church has been in the midst of change since Pope Francis assumed his position in 2013. In his biography, Ivereigh (How To Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice) chronicles the life of Francis as a religious leader and human being with zeal and alacrity. It is clear that the author personally holds the pope in very high esteem, and after reading this exhaustive chronicle it is nearly impossible not to share his opinion. Though casual readers might be overwhelmed or bogged down by the sheer amount of background (Ivereigh goes as far back as the lives of the pope's grandparents, as well as covering the political history of Francis's homeland of Argentina), fans of Papal history or readers who simply love a solid political biography will revel in the intricate parallels between the personal life of the pope and the sociopolitical environment he was raised in and inhabits now. After reading Ivereigh's account it is easy to see why Francis is a champion for humility and the underprivileged, and after getting to know the man through these pages, admiring him and his revolutionary approach to leadership is irresistible. VERDICT A meticulous and lovingly written biography that will please both knowledgeable and amateur readers.--Kathleen Dupre, Edmond, OK

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 15, 2014
For most Europeans and North Americans, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who became Pope Francis, was even more mysterious than Karol Woytyla, who became Pope John Paul II. Then again, they hadn't paid much attention to the Latin American church. English Catholic journalist Ivereigh details in this presentational biography the ascending succession of responsible positions that Bergoglio held as he became a predominant church figure. This son of Italian middle-class immigrants was a child, too, of turbulent twentieth-century Argentina, the story of which Ivereigh makes the vital and complicated backdrop to his subject's career. Drawing on Bergoglio's writings and public statements as well as the testimonies of his close associates, the book shows how Bergoglio placed the Jesuit process of discernment at the heart of his spirituality to help him save fellow Jesuits and others during Argentina's infamous Dirty War. He also improved the training of Jesuits in Argentina, fostered cooperation among Latin America's Catholic clergy, and, most impressively, as cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires, anchored the church to the faithful by placing ministry to the poor at the heart of the church's activity. He has not courted the wealthy, politicians, and the media, preferring to go personally to his flock, making him seem far less a prince of the church than a Catholic Worker. Consider this book the cornerstone of any collection on Pope Francis and twenty-first-century Christianity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)