Before his death in the spring of this year, Pope Francis spent six years writing his autobiography entitled Hope. It was published in January of 2025 and is the first autobiography by a sitting pope. He originally wanted it to be published after his death, but the state of the world compelled him to publish it sooner.

The book begins with his childhood–his love of soccer (despite proclaiming his two left feet) and the people and events that shaped him early in his life—and contains humor, personal photographs, and anecdotes throughout. He writes about his life as a Jesuit priest and his journey to becoming the Pope; he also writes fearlessly about critical issues of our time – politics, war, the environmental crisis, sexuality, and the future of the Church and religion.

But his fundamental message is hope. He writes, “The future has a name and this name is hope. To have hope doesn’t mean being naïve optimists who ignore the tragedy of human evil. Hope is the virtue of a heart that doesn’t close itself in the dark, doesn’t stop at the past, doesn’t scrape along in the present but can clearly see tomorrow.” He also speaks of a revolution in tenderness in which “tenderness means nothing other than this: It means love that becomes close and concrete. It means using your eyes to see the other, using your ears to hear the other, to hear the cry of the young, of the poor, of those who fear the future; to listen also to the silent cry of our common home, of the sick and contaminated earth. And after seeing, after listening, there is no saying. There is doing.”

Pope Francis died on April 21 at the age of 88. If you choose to read his book, may it give you hope and the desire to do good things with tenderness.