When he was still a Cardinal, Jorge Bergoglio — now Pope Francis — sat down with Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti to talk about the Catholic church, the importance of work, the financial crisis, and Argentina, among many other topics. These interviews have been recently republished as Pope Francis: His Life in His Own Words. Now, I’m no Catholic; in fact, I’m an atheist with strong negative feeling about the Catholic church as an institution. It was for that reason that I was so interested to read Pope Francis’s thoughts in his own words and without added layers of media spin. I came away from this book with a great deal of respect for the man, and a huge amount of frustration at his blindness to some of the central faults and problems with the institution he now leads. I saw in these pages a compassionate, thoughtful, poetic man, and I wonder how his humility and simplicity will shape the Catholic church in the coming years. Or will they be lost? Mostly, though, I had my eyes opened to the man — and I thought rather than a traditional review (because I think your response to a book about the Pope is going to be so ideologically driven that there’s almost no point), I’d share seven interesting things I learned about Pope Francis from reading this book. Here’s my favourite facts from this collection of interviews. He totally knows what you’re thinking about the church ladies in your town. He has some tough talk for Argentinians. He has an appreciation of flexibility in orthodoxy. He spins a mean simile. He loves — I mean, really loves — soccer. He cracks mother-in-law jokes. He appreciates a good tango.
