Pope Francis in His Own Words

August 1, 2013

It is not difficult to understand the eagerness and even the anxiety of much of the Roman Catholic world as it anticipates the actions and policies of the man so recently elevated to the See of Rome; hence this publication, one of the first to attempt to collect and understand the public utterances of Father Bergoglio, who is now Pope Francis. In truth, there is relatively little to find: most of his words here are either banal or boilerplate prelatry. Not the scholar or the writer his predecessor was, Francis remains largely unguessable. VERDICT For parishes, seminaries, and devout readers--the latter will cling to this little book for clues to the Holy Father's character as leader, but only time will tell. Readers will find more substance in Bergoglio and Rabbi Abraham Skorka's On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Family, and the Church in the Twenty-First Century.

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