Which Pope Francis Biography Should I Buy for My Aunt?
September 27, 2015 3:48 PM Subscribe
My aunt mentioned that she would like a biography of Pope Francis. So I naively thought I'd just go online and buy her one. But of course it turns out that there are lots and lots of biographies. Which one should I get?
My aunt is Catholic and practicing, but not particularly interested in the minutae of theology and probably also not that interested in the bureaucratic details of running the Vatican. She is all about things like his humility, his reaching out to people, his compassion for the poor and his social justice promotion.
We will be going to the Vatican soon, though I'm not sure if that would be relevant.
My aunt is Catholic and practicing, but not particularly interested in the minutae of theology and probably also not that interested in the bureaucratic details of running the Vatican. She is all about things like his humility, his reaching out to people, his compassion for the poor and his social justice promotion.
We will be going to the Vatican soon, though I'm not sure if that would be relevant.
It's not a full biography, but my friend coauthored this article about him in 2013 that's really interesting. Maybe get her a back copy if she doesn't already have it?
posted by bedhead at 8:19 PM on September 27, 2015
posted by bedhead at 8:19 PM on September 27, 2015
It's not a biography but it might still be a good option: On Heaven and Earth was written by Francis himself (when he was a cardinal) and Abraham Skorka, a rabbi. It is written as a dialog about important spiritual issues of our day and would give your aunt an easily-digestible perspective on the Pope's thoughts and beliefs as well as an interesting view on how a different faith thinks about the same questions. Short chapters, easy to read and she can easily skim the parts that are less interesting.
posted by metahawk at 12:10 AM on September 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by metahawk at 12:10 AM on September 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
How much effort are you wanting to put into this? You could try Amazon buyer reviews, book reviews in the Catholic press, speak to a librarian at a Catholic university (or similar), ...
posted by GeeEmm at 2:41 PM on September 28, 2015
posted by GeeEmm at 2:41 PM on September 28, 2015
Anything from this publisher is generally pretty decent. That Our Brother, Our Friend linked above is only ten bucks right now.
posted by resurrexit at 2:22 PM on September 30, 2015
posted by resurrexit at 2:22 PM on September 30, 2015
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posted by MonkeyToes at 4:01 PM on September 27, 2015 [1 favorite]