Pope Francis

A wise and perceptive portrait of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the 266th Pope.

From his first appearance on a Vatican balcony Pope Francis proved himself a Pope of surprises. With a series of potent gestures, history's first Jesuit pope declared a mission to restore authenticity and integrity to a Catholic Church bedeviled by sex abuse and secrecy, intrigue and in-fighting, ambition and arrogance. He declared it should be "a poor Church, for the poor." But there is a hidden past to this modest man with the winning smile. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was previously a bitterly divisive figure. His decade as leader of Argentina's Jesuits left the religious order deeply split. And his behavior during Argentina's Dirty War, when military death squads snatched innocent people from the streets, raised serious questions--on which this book casts new light. Yet something dramatic then happened to Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He underwent an extraordinary transformation. After a time of exile, he reemerged having turned from a conservative authoritarian into a humble friend of the poor.

In this new edition of Pope Francis: Untying the Knots, Paul Vallely builds on the story of Bergoglio's remarkable life and journey of personal transformation. It reveals what changed the man who was to become Pope Francis and employs cogent analysis of his first eighteen months as Pope. Writing with unparalleled access and research, Paul Vallely offers new evidence and penetrating insight into Pope Francis's public and private personae.

Paul Vallely is a journalist with an international reputation as a commentator on religion, society, and political issues. He was correspondent for the Times in Ethiopia during the famine of 1984–85 for which he was commended as International Reporter of the Year by the British Press Awards. He is the editor of The New Politics: Catholic Social Teaching for the Twenty-first Century and has advised the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. He was created a CMG “for services to journalism and to the developing world” in 2006 and is currently associate editor of the Independent.