Why does Pope Francis need to tell his story?

A new autobiography of Pope Francis will be published in January of the coming Jubilee Year, 2025. It is called Spera—Hope!, i.e., a verb in the imperative mood—and and a major Italian publishing house is bringing it out. The original plan was to release the book only after Francis’s death, but Francis came to believe his message should be shared with the world in a time of particular need.

So, for the third time in two years, Pope Francis is coming out with a book that tells his life story. There was Life, with the journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona, which looked at the events of history seen through the eyes of the Pope. El Succesor, with the journalist Javier Martinez Brocal, shed light on the relationship between Pope Francis and Benedict XVI. This cohabitation lasted almost ten years. And now there is Spera, which presents as an autobiography and took six years to write.

Pope Francis wants to tell his story, to forge the narrative, to give his version of the facts, and so give shape and completeness to his pontificate. Benedict XVI had spoken of a II Vatican Council as told by the media and the Council that really happened. We can say that in the case of Francis, there is a pontificate of the media and a real pontificate, with the difference that Francis wants to control and manage the pontificate of the media.

The announcement of the autobiography came at the Frankfurt Book Fair, in the middle of a synod that isn’t getting nearly the attention others have enjoyed.

Pope Francis has removed the most controversial discussions from the Synod by establishing ten study groups. However, the issues find a way to the fore. They are inserted into the speeches. One of the participants in the Synod noted that many of the interventions go off topic. This is a sign that some go to the Synod with an agenda. But can this agenda continue?

This Synod Assembly could have a devastating effect on Pope Francis. The Synod debate shows that the Synod Fathers are not moving toward a revolution in the Church. For example, the Synod Fathers still want unity and centrality in the universal Church, and they are skeptical of giving the bishops’ conferences doctrinal competencies.

Pope Francis has left the doors open and only partially closed them with a few jokes or decisions. Everything in the pontificate remains open, and everyone can say they have received encouragement from the Pope. What Pope Francis thinks is a matter of debate.

This does not help the image of the pontificate. In the synodal season, we are given a Pope who decides alone, who goes beyond the prerogatives of the Synod itself, and who, in the end, will find a way to introduce into the debate the topics he cares about most.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, certainly not one of those who could be said to be against Pope Francis, stressed that even the decision on the theme of the Synod was taken only by the Pope, who had gone against other proposals, such as that of a Synod on migration and that of a Synod on the life and ministry of the priesthood.

The third book in two years helps, therefore, to forge a narrative about Pope Francis, himself. The book diverts attention from the present and looks at Pope Francis’s past and history. Above all, it is Francis’s attempt to supply a human self-portrait and perhaps to implant stories that will remain in the collective memory.

Pope Francis has sought to control the narrative about himself since the beginning of his pontificate. He gave his version of the facts about his relationship with Benedict XVI and thus outlined the narrative that was not at all favorable to him after not having even once mentioned the name of the Pope Emeritus at the funeral, a celebration distinguished by its subdued tone.

Pope Francis then wanted to express his point of view on the world’s events, retracing his life and examining historical memory, giving the image of a Pope immersed in his time.

Now, it seems he wants to add a further touch of humanity with an autobiographical work he studied and worked on for six years, which has little improvisation and a lot of strategy.

Will Pope Francis succeed in reshaping his image?

Is it too late?

In recent years, the pontificate has had several setbacks, which have eroded the sympathy he enjoyed from the beginning of his pontificate. The Rupnik case was a turning point, but there had been other signs of crisis in the pontificate. It was many years ago, now, that a faithful follower of the Pope wrote an article in which he argued that the propulsive thrust of the pontificate had not run out, some appearances to the contrary.

The Pope’s strategy includes not only the autobiography, but an intense schedule of public appearances. On November 5, he will inaugurate the academic year of the Pontifical Gregorian University, for example. Founded in 1551 by St. Ignatius Loyola himself, the “Greg” is the oldest and most prestigious Jesuit university in the world. Whatever Francis brings will be his A-game.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis has called a consistory for December 7. and the creation of so many new cardinals—twenty-one, of whom twenty will be electors—may fairly be read as part and parcel of efforts to forge some sort of unity in the college and in the Church.

Therefore, Pope Francis’s communication effort, far from being a turn to the past, is really an effort to direct the future, to prepare for the end of his pontificate and for what comes next, to meet the need to leave a “spiritual legacy” to posterity.

Hence, the third autobiography in two years of the Pope. To tell about himself and establish a point of no return regarding how his life is told. Time will tell if this move is just populism or something more.