Papež reformátor – Ivereigh Austin (2016)

Ivereigh's broadly conceived and meticulously crafted biography of Pope Francis reveals previously undocumented details about the beginnings of this unconventional pope's ambitious program and where the Church is headed with it. Based on numerous interviews in Argentina, Rome, and elsewhere, as well as long-term studies of the contemporary Catholic Church, The Reforming Pope tells the story of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a man who rose from the son of middle-class Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires to become the spiritual leader of more than a billion Catholics worldwide. This detailed and thorough biography illuminates essentially unknown connections: the influence of the Argentine nationalist movement on Pope Francis and the inspiration from the first Jesuit missionaries; his radical advocacy for a Church for the poor; the visionary yet controversial way he led the Argentine Jesuits; and the breathtaking manner in which he balanced on the edge during the military dictatorship of the 1970s. The book, based on primary sources and dozens of interviews with his contemporaries, describes his remarkable leadership as bishop and archbishop during a crisis in the Vatican, includes a fascinating list of his friends that transcends the boundaries of faith, politics, and nations, and his courageous resistance to drugs, gambling...