Hope summary

531 Calle Membrillar in the Flores neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, in a modest single storey house with three bedrooms, is where Jorge Bergoglio lived from ages two to twenty-one, along with his parents and four siblings. The unassuming house was always crowded, full of activity and lively discussion. This atmosphere was mirrored in the streets outside. Flores in the 1930s and 40s was a working-class barrio with a large immigrant population. Jewish families from Odessa shared streets with Turkish, Syrian, and Lebanese Muslims who still carried passports from the old Ottoman Empire. 

Within a few blocks of Calle Membrillar were some of the most significant landmarks in Jorge’s early life: the dyeworks where his father kept the books, his grandparents' homes, and the Colegio Nuestra Señora de Misericordia where he attended nursery school. The streets were his playground. Along with the other neighbourhood children, Jorge played football with a ball made of rags; leather was far too expensive. During carnival, the streets would explode with life, and Jorge joined the costumed revelers once even dressing with his sister; him as a groom and her as a bride. 

Before he was a priest, a bishop, a cardinal, or the Pope, Jorge Bergoglio was a teenage boy in Buenos Aires, with all the normal preoccupations of adolescence: he dreamed about his future, considering a career in chemistry, and he felt the first stirrings of teen love. But in the back of his mind, he felt called towards God.

The decisive moment came on September 21, 1953 – the Day of the Student, a holiday where young people traditionally celebrated the arrival of spring with outdoor picnics. Jorge had planned to meet friends for an afternoon celebration after a morning spent running errands for his mother. But fate, or God, intervened. Passing the church of San Jose de Flores, he felt an inexplicable pull to enter. Inside, he made his confession to a priest named Father Duarte. What started like a routine Catholic practice turned transformative. Even though this confession was no different from any other, as he went through the ritual Jorge – before leaving the confessional, Jorge knew with certainty that he would become a priest.

In 1956, Jorge Bergoglio answered his spiritual calling and entered a Jesuit seminary. The Jesuits, a Catholic religious order of priests and brothers bound by special vows, areorder is known for theirits intellectual rigor, missionary work, and dedication to education. At seminary, he would immerse himself in theology and scholarship. But in 1957, a flu epidemic tore around the globe. Jorge fell ill. As his condition worsened, he was rushed from seminary to hospital where doctors realized he was critically unwell. They performed an emergency endoscopy that drained 1.5 liters of fluid from his lungs. Multiple surgeries followed to repair lung damage and remove cysts, leaving him with a permanent reminder of the fragility of life.

Returning to seminary, Jorge wrestled with uncertainty. His brush with death had left him more ready than ever to embrace life, in all its messiness and hardship. He began to question whether he was really suited to the solitary life of a seminarian. 

When Jorge Bergoglio was ordained as a priest in 1969, he could hardly have imagined that 44 years later, he would find himself at the Vatican, about to ascend to the highest office in the Catholic Church, after having served as Jesuit provincial superior, auxiliary bishop, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and cardinal.

In March 2013, following Pope Benedict XVI's historic resignation, the College of Cardinals gathered for the conclave – the ancient, secretive process by which the Church selects its new leader. Jorge wasn't considered a likely candidate; rather, he was viewed as a potential kingmaker, one of the Latin American cardinals who might influence others' votes. That changed, however, when he made a planned address at the conclave’s preparatory meeting. His passion and energy left some in the audience convinced that he embodied the qualities the Catholic church most needed in their next head.

The story of Pope Francis is the story of a remarkable journey. From Italy to Argentina, from the shantytowns of Buenos Aires and Chile to the palaces of the Vatican, from Jorge Bergoglio to Francis, Pontiff. At every step of the journey, Francis can draw meaningful lessons from his past. But his connection to his past does not cloud his vision for the future. How will this vision shape the Catholic Church?

Francis is committed to what he calls the "demasculinization" of the Church. As a devoted follower of Mary, he insists that the Church itself is fundamentally female, not male. While clerics may be male, he argues, they are not the Church – they serve the Church, which is their bride. Francis has elevated women to unprecedented positions of power, as when he appointed Sister Rafaella Petrini secretary general of the Vatican City State. While he hasn't explicitly endorsed allowing women to be ordained into the priesthood he has taken the notable step of refusing to rule out the possibility.