“Francisco risked his life to save many people during the dictatorship.”

Anyone wishing to delve deeper into the late Pope's life should read the Autobiography, published last January under the title Esperanza ( Plaza&Janés, Rosa dels Vents in Catalan ), which Jorge Mario Bergoglio wrote with the collaboration of Carlo Musso. Following the intense week of his death and the funeral, Musso responded via email to our questions about the work process he shared with Pope Francis.

How have you experienced these last few days?

With pain. With astonishment, too, despite being aware of their health conditions, but the truth is that one is never truly prepared for the death of one's "Fathers." With great admiration, certainly, for their total dedication to service, for their sacrifice.

I had received a phone call from him the day before his admission to Gemelli Hospital: "I'm on IV drips, but I'm still alive," he had told me, with his typical Argentine determination. Late the next morning, his extremely difficult experience in the hospital would begin: he was breathing with great difficulty, but an hour before being admitted, he refused to miss a meeting with the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic to discuss the war in Ukraine and the extremely serious humanitarian emergency in Gaza.

He also gave me the gift of calling me the day after he was discharged, on March 24th, once he returned to the Santa Marta nursing home. His voice was a very fine thread. He thanked me several times, even though he didn't have to. I was deeply moved; I understood that he would serve until the end.

"No sitting Pope in modern times had written his memoirs. 'If it helps me, let's do it,' he told me."

How did the Pope contact you? Who came up with the idea of ​​writing Hope ?

I had already had the honor of serving as editorial director of several important publications for Pope Francis, starting with his first official book as Pontiff, published on the occasion of the 2016 Jubilee.

Some time later, during a private meeting in Santa Marta, the idea of ​​an autobiography emerged very simply: no sitting Pope in modern times had written one, but Francis has done so many things for the first time... With his usual simplicity, he said: "If you help me, let's do it." About three months later, in total secrecy, the work began. He gave me great confidence throughout, for which I am grateful.

What language did they communicate in?

In Italian, embellished with his magnificent neologisms. Then, since he was a man with a sense of humor, and given that we shared Piedmontese roots, he would occasionally crack a joke in that dialect, which, by the way, he mastered very well.

How did you prepare the questionnaires?

Before each meeting, I wrote an outline of the topics we would discuss and sent it to him. But overall, it was a very open and free process, with no preconceived ideas, and with a lot of exchanges of texts and suggestions.

How long did it take you to finish the volume?

The drafting began in early 2019 and concluded in December of last year, around the time the Pope created 21 new cardinals from around the world, once again demonstrating his vision of a universal Church.

How many times did you see the Pope?

During the writing process, there were several times, and there were also numerous phone calls, emails, and document exchanges. Once it was finished, I had the opportunity to see him at least three more times this year, from January to early March, and witnessed firsthand, and with growing concern, his deteriorating health. But even in his fragility, he was unstoppable.

Did you see him get particularly emotional at any particular moment when recalling his career?

I saw the Pope moved, just as I often saw him smile, and the book also recounts some hilarious episodes. But what I remember most is perhaps the indignation—the anger, I would say—at the criminal barbarity of war, at the countless innocent victims that conflicts multiply, and whom he had the opportunity to encounter by the thousands on his many travels: orphans, widows, children and the elderly in exile, refugees..., which the book chronicles.

“After the book was published, the Gobulin couple confirmed: 'If we're still alive, it's thanks to him.'”

Esperanza extensively covers the period of the Argentine dictatorship and the Dirty War, one of its most controversial periods. Francis dedicates special tribute to his mentor Esther Ballestrino, one of the disappeared, and to the Jesuit priests Yorio and Jalics, who were tortured. Was addressing these episodes particularly difficult for him? Or did he specifically want to clear up some misunderstandings on the subject?

I didn't detect any concern about this. Instead, I did notice his pain for what happened, for those who disappeared, for those terrible years, for so many tragedies. For the victims, among whom were dear friends, like Esther Ballestrino Careaga, a courageous woman whose face stood out in a portrait hanging in his small studio in Santa Marta, and with whose daughters and granddaughters he maintained relationships throughout his life. Significantly, that chapter is titled with verses from a psalm: "They devour my people as if they were bread."

Francis took great risks in those years to save many people. In a very recent television interview, following the publication of Hope , the Gobulins, a young couple he had managed to save and help escape to Italy, and whose story is told in the book, confirmed with emotion: “If we're still alive, it's thanks to him.” Like many others, he put his own life at risk on more than one occasion, but when I pointed this out to him, he succinctly cut me off, saying, “I did it, and that's enough.”

What impact has the international launch of Esperanza had?

It's a global phenomenon; I don't think it's possible to give a figure for the number of copies sold at the moment: it's published in 32 languages, from the most common to Hindi, Tamil, Kurdish, Arabic, and Korean. I've seen it in the rankings of Italian, American, Canadian, German, French, English, Irish, Spanish, and Latin American newspapers. I read a magnificent article published in Kerala, India. Like his attention and care for the world, his love for Francis was also seen to be universal. Among the things that have moved me in these hours is seeing, among the immense crowd at his funeral, many young people holding one of the many editions of the book: Spera, Esperanza, Hope, Espère, Hoffe ... And seeing messages of gratitude for this work of his from every continent.

He intended to publish it after his death, but he got ahead of himself. Do you think the Pope knew his life was about to end?

The book remained a secret for a long time—"the best-kept secret in the publishing world," wrote one American newspaper—because it was, in fact, scheduled to be published after his death. But in between, the Jubilee of Hope, which is the thread that weaves everything together, even in the most dramatic pages, provided the opportunity to anticipate its publication: the two dates almost inevitably coincided. I can't say if he was fully aware of his imminent end; I've wondered, but I don't dare answer questions like this. Of course, he died as prophets die, and his is precisely the autobiography of a prophet.

The Pope recounts how the last conclave unfolded. What does he think will happen next?

I'm not participating in what they call the "toto-Papa" game in Italy. Certainly, those 400,000 people who gathered in Rome from all over for the funeral are a strong indication to take into account. As for Pope Francis, it happens to prophets that their testimony, their words, become even more evident with distance. That's why I believe that his teaching, as well as this autobiography, which represents his precious legacy for all the men and women of the world, is something that will be increasingly understood and valued as the months and years go by. It is a book of the future more than the past, and of wings more than roots.

Have you read Javier Cercas's book , *God's Fool at the End of the World *, about the Pope's trip to Mongolia?

With the Pope, we spoke about Mongolia, his most "eccentric" apostolic trip, in the literal sense of the word ("outside the center"), where a tiny Catholic community inhabits a vast territory: "I experienced a mysticism and a precious peculiarity," said Francis. I haven't had the chance to read Javier Cercas's book yet, but I'm sure I will.

A life with Providence

Carlo Musso was director of non-fiction at the publishing houses Piemme and Sperling & Kupfer (Mondadori group), and later founder of the independent imprint Libreria Pienogiorno, where he published several collections of texts by Pope Francis ( Buona vita , Ti voglio bene , Ti voglio felice... ). Esperanza , the text he worked on with the Pontiff, is presented as a first-person chronological account of his life, with a journalistic emphasis on the most significant scenes. It begins with the shipwreck of the ship Giulio Cesare, which the memoirist's grandparents, Piedmontese emigrants en route to Argentina, were on the verge of boarding but ultimately did not. The Pope believed he owed his existence to that postponement, and "you can't imagine how many times I have thanked Divine Providence for it." The book continues with the family's subsequent settlement in the country and their firm Catholicism, which did not exclude good relations with Jews and Muslims in a multiethnic Buenos Aires neighborhood. Jorge's mother's love of music, which he inherited: from Gustav Mahler to Carlos Gardel. The joy of his father, who died of a heart attack at 51. Soccer, basketball, and stamp collecting. Some (mild) romantic attraction. His studies in Chemistry. The seminary. His lung surgery. His relationship with Jorge Luis Borges, whom he invited to teach at his school, when he was already a priest. His friendship with Father Pepe, who would dedicate his life to the shantytowns around the capital. Esther Ballestrino was his boss at a biomedical laboratory; a Marxist by training, she encouraged him to read and think politically. Kidnapped in 1977 by the political police, she was tortured and thrown alive into the sea from a plane. Already provincial of the Jesuits, Bergoglio, despite his efforts, was unable to help her. He did help the Uruguayan priest who escaped to Brazil, hidden in his car and with his identity document. He also helped seminarians and priests, in very difficult situations. For a year, she had to be treated by a psychiatrist (she specifies that she was Jewish). From the archbishopric of Buenos Aires to the papacy, and the world travels, and the "most difficult, most painful pontifical decisions (that) have been made after consultations and reflection, seeking unanimity and on a synodal path."