Download or read book Rebuilding the Church Pope Francis and After written by Joseph Stanley and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict XVI followed by the election of Pope Francis of quite a different mould has introduced into the Church not more theological discourse, but signifi cant theological action a constant preaching, where words are used only when necessary. This book presents four essays starting with an imaginary trajectory of the Church during the next hundred years where a new style of leadership in the church renews its strength and vigour by co-opting competent and committed laity. Will this dream ever be realized? The contention of the author is that it can, because his dreams are consonant with the doctrinal heritage of the Catholic Church, as he indicates in the notes. His prayer and wish is that it becomes a reality. The second essay suggests a pastoral approach that could pave the way to facilitate the emergence of such a situation. The third essay is a theological elaboration of the place of the teaching authority of the church. The fourth essay is a short article which indicates that change has taken place and will continue to take place in the Church.
Download or read book Reclaiming Francis written by Charles M. Murphy and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Pope Francis continues to call for the rebuilding of the Church, Msgr. Charles M. Murphy, author of The Spirituality of Fasting and Eucharistic Adoration, offers a timely look at what today's Church can learn from St. Francis of Assisi about evangelization and renewal. When Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio chose the name Francis, a renewed sense of hope and energy swept through the Church. In this timely book, Msgr. Charles M. Murphy examines the correlations between the two Francises and shows why St. Francis is an ideal model for today. Just as in St. Francis's time, today's Church can only be rebuilt and reinforced by a spiritual renewal that comes from within itself, a vision that Pope Francis carries forward in the New Evangelization. Pope Paul VI, the first modern pope to focus on evangelization, once said, "People today listen more to witnesses than to teachers." Pope Francis knows that St. Francis is just such a witness and Murphy enlivens them both for his readers. -- Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Francis Repair My Church written by John Edgar Raub and published by Wipf & Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author John Raub's twenty-eight years as a monk changed him, sharpening his eye to see more deeply into situations with a perspective that welcomes debate, for controversy invites thought. Pope Francis Revives Vatican II is of interest not just to Catholics, but to all Americans. Drawing on Raub's monastic experience, it offers readers startling insight into the Holocaust, presidents Roosevelt and Eisenhower, Senator Joseph McCarthy, the John Birch Society, the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War--including Raub's first-hand experience administering to the victims of the Kent State shootings--homosexuality, Obamacare, the Tea Party, the rise of hate groups, and the source of Vladimir Putin's dislike of the West. The book features a personal letter from President Obama and an analysis of Adlai Stevenson's opinion of Norman Vincent Peale. ""John Raub's Francis, Repair My Church is a sensitive call for reform and renewal in the Catholic church today. A few prominent writers and theologians, men and women, have more recently, and courageously, challenged a conservative movement to 'reform the reforms' of the 2nd Vatican Council. John Raub now adds his unique voice to this chorus of change and renewal. His voice is gentle, not strident. His insights are compassionate, not combative. . . . May Pope Francis, and every Francis, and Frances, repair his/her Church--and mine."" --Paul Milanowski, retired Parish Priest of the Diocese, Grand Rapids, MI ""From his perspective as a diocesan priest, Trappist monk, and married man, John Raub sees clearly the role of Pope Francis in retrieving important elements of the second Vatican Council that have been eclipsed during the last half century, especially the crucial role of the whole people of God in discerning the truth of the gospel--all made available for us in clear understandable language."" --James J Bacik, Priest of the Diocese, Toledo, OH ""John Raub and I served together as priests in the Diocese of Youngstown. As friends, we shared the joys and sorrows of our work and were very enthusiastic about Vatican II. I feel this book reflects the wisdom gained and the joy experienced by John as a priest, a monk, and a husband. It is a story of deaths and resurrections in the church and in himself as he lived them over the last eighty years. This book reveals John's love for the church, for God, and his sense of religious life as one of service and happiness, which is exemplified by Pope Francis. It is reflective, enjoyable, and fun to read."" --Carl Kish, pastor, St. Robert Bellarmine Church, Youngstown, OH John Raub has seen Catholicism from multiple perspectives: He attended Catholic schools and graduated from the University of Notre Dame twice. He became a priest and served as a teacher and principal at Catholic schools. Following his twenty-eight years at the Abbey of Gethsemani, he returned to parish life and has since been married for fourteen years. He is also the author of Who Told You That You Were Naked? (1992).
Download or read book Boundless Faith written by Robert Wuthnow and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Boundless Faith, the first book to look systematically at American Christianity in relation to globalization, Robert Wuthnow shows that American Christianity is increasingly influenced by globalization and is, in turn, playing a larger role in other countries and in U.S. policies and programs abroad. These changes, he argues, can be seen in the growth of support at home for missionaries and churches in other countries and in the large number of Americans who participate in short-term volunteer efforts abroad. These outreaches include building orphanages, starting microbusinesses, and setting up computer networks. Drawing on a comprehensive survey that was conducted for this book, as well as several hundred in-depth interviews with church leaders, Wuthnow refutes several prevailing stereotypes: that U.S. churches have turned away from the global church and overseas missions, that congregations only look inward, and that the growing voice of religion in areas of foreign policy is primarily evangelical. This fresh and revealing book encourages Americans to pay attention to the grass-roots mechanisms by which global ties are created and sustained.
Download or read book Church Interrupted written by John Cornwell and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Church, Interrupted: Havoc & Hope: The Tender Revolt of Pope Francis is a revealing portrait of Pope Francis's hopeful yet controversial efforts to recreate the Catholic Church to become, once again, a welcoming place of empathy, love, and inclusiveness. Bestselling author, Vanity Fair contributor, and papal biographer John Cornwell tells the gripping insider story of Pope Francis's bid to bring renewal and hope to a crisis-plagued Church and the world at large. With unique insights and original reporting, Cornwell reveals how Francis has persistently provoked and disrupted his stubbornly unchanging Church, purging clerical corruption and reforming entrenched institutions, while calling for action against global poverty, climate change, and racism. Cornwell argues that despite fierce opposition from traditionalist clergy and right-wing media, the pope has radically widened Catholic moral priorities, calling for mercy and compassion over rigid dogmatism. Francis, according to Cornwell, has transformed the Vatican from being a top-down centralized authority to being a spiritual service for a global Church. He has welcomed the rejected, abused, and disheartened; reached out to people of other faiths and those of none; and proved a providential spiritual leader for future generations. Highly acclaimed author John Cornwell's riveting account of the hopeful—and contentious—efforts undertaken by Pope Francis to rebuild the Catholic Church. • Well researched and brilliantly written, readers, scholars, and fans of John Cornwell will want to read his most controversial and compelling work yet. • More than a third of America's 74 million Catholics said they were contemplating departure in 2018. It is estimated that over the past twenty years, the Catholic Church has been losing $2.5 billion dollars annually in revenues, legal fees, and damages due to clerical abuse cases. The decline in church attendance, marriages, and vocations to the priesthood and sisterhood tell a story of major decline and disillusion. Cornwell showcases Pope Francis's way forward, a hopeful message that gives reinvigorated reasons to stay with the church and help be the change the new generation would like to see. • For readers within and outside Catholicism fascinated by the future and restructuring of the church, this will be a book they want to read again and again as the church continues to change and grow.
Download or read book To Change the Church written by Ross Douthat and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times columnist and one of America’s leading conservative thinkers considers Pope Francis’s efforts to change the church he governs in a book that is “must reading for every Christian who cares about the fate of the West and the future of global Christianity” (Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option). Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, today Pope Francis is the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis’s stewardship of the Church, while perceived as a revelation by many, has provoked division throughout the world. “If a conclave were to be held today,” one Roman source told The New Yorker, “Francis would be lucky to get ten votes.” In his “concise, rhetorically agile…adroit, perceptive, gripping account (The New York Times Book Review), Ross Douthat explains why the particular debate Francis has opened—over communion for the divorced and the remarried—is so dangerous: How it cuts to the heart of the larger argument over how Christianity should respond to the sexual revolution and modernity itself, how it promises or threatens to separate the church from its own deep past, and how it divides Catholicism along geographical and cultural lines. Douthat argues that the Francis era is a crucial experiment for all of Western civilization, which is facing resurgent external enemies (from ISIS to Putin) even as it struggles with its own internal divisions, its decadence, and self-doubt. Whether Francis or his critics are right won’t just determine whether he ends up as a hero or a tragic figure for Catholics. It will determine whether he’s a hero, or a gambler who’s betraying both his church and his civilization into the hands of its enemies. “A balanced look at the struggle for the future of Catholicism…To Change the Church is a fascinating look at the church under Pope Francis” (Kirkus Reviews). Engaging and provocative, this is “a pot-boiler of a history that examines a growing ecclesial crisis” (Washington Independent Review of Books).
Download or read book Letters to Pope Francis written by Matthew Fox and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013-06-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio to the Papacy marked a series of historic Papal firsts-first Jesuit, first from the Americas and first from the Southern Hemisphere. But most moving was his being the first to take the name of St. Francis. At a time when the Vatican is embroiled in decades-long scandals of the Curia and its clergy around the globe, this act has inspired the world to hope for a church rebuilt in the spirit of his namesake, Francis. Former Dominican priest Matthew Fox presents a series of heartfelt letters to his brother in Christ about the great challenges facing the church today, drawing from the deep spiritual and theological sources that have been suppressed since Vatican II, and implores him to restore the sensus fidelium (the sense of the faithful) and reshape a church with justice and compassion. "LETTERS TO POPE FRANCIS is a polemic against the calcified power structure the pope inherited; but his tone is one of clear respect for the addressee...Fox deserves credit for his relentless consistency as a radical; he kept arguing for a church to broaden its thinking and boundaries, to welcome the outcasts, while the bishops and Vatican turned in, shunning clergy abuse victims, turning nuns into heretics and by the way disgorging billions in legal losses for sheltering pedophiles. One can pity Pope Francis for the mess he has before him; but by criticizing an imperial economy that wreaks injustice on the poor, this pope is digging toward the same taproot that animates Matt Fox. It is unlikely the handlers around Pope Francis would ever let him get a book like LETTERS TO POPE FRANCIS. But...It is not a stretch to imagine this Francis nodding at certain passages from Fox, a latter-day Jeremiah with his trumpet wailing at the wall." -Jason Berry in The Global Post "Just published, the book is a welcome set of missives, echoing themes that are at once familiar and well argued. Surely, the new Pope will never read these letters, but one wishes that he would, particularly before planning what he will say to millions of Catholic youth in Rio de Janeiro later this month...the bulk of this thought-provoking book is sanely reasoned and profoundly important. I hope that Catholics will read it." - Jon Sweeney on The Huffington Post "Matthew Fox's creation spirituality is the spirituality of the future; and his theology of the Cosmic Christ is the theology of the future." - Father Bede Griffiths "Matthew Fox might well be the most creative, the most comprehensive, surely the most challenging religious-spiritual teacher in America. He has the scholarship, the imagination, the courage, the writing skill to fulfill this role at a time when the more official Christian theological traditions are having difficulty in establishing any vital contact with either the spiritual possibilities of the present or with their own most creative spiritual traditions of the past...He has, it seems, created a new mythic context for leading us out of our contemporary religious and spiritual confusion into a new clarity of mind and peace of soul, by affirming rather than abandoning any of our traditional beliefs." - Thomas Berry "History will name Fox one of the great Christian spirits of our age." - John Shelby Spong "Those who illumine the questions of life walk a dangerous path. They hold up for examination the very pilasters of the systems that depend on them for its credibility. They threaten old paradigms and open new possibility where once only cocksure certitude had been. Galileo did such things and suffered for it. Luther did such things and was exiled for it. Matt Fox did such things and cast a light into the recesses of the medieval mind that was a whole world wide. He brought to light again the notions of basic wholeness and the essential goodness of creation. He gives us all new light into the nature of God in the nature of the self." - Sister Joan Chittister
Download or read book Rebuilt written by Michael White and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2012-02-28 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on the wisdom gleaned from thriving mega-churches and innovative business leaders while anchoring their vision in the Eucharistic center of Catholic faith, Fr. Michael White and lay associate Tom Corcoran present the compelling and inspiring story to how they brought their parish back to life. Rebuilt: Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, and Making Church Matter is a story of stopping everything and changing focus. When their parish reached a breaking point, White and Corcoran asked themselves how they could make the Church matter to Catholics, and they realized the answer was at the heart of the Gospel. Their faithful response not only tripled their weekend mass attendance, but also yielded increased giving, flourishing ministries, and a vibrant, solidly Catholic spiritual revival. White and Corcoran invite all Catholic leaders to share the vision, borrow their strategies, and rebuild their own parishes. They offer a wealth of guidance for anyone with the courage to hear them.
Download or read book Pope Francis Conscience of the World written by John Raymaker and published by . This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the life and writings of Pope Francis, who has given the Church leadership in areas like climate change and interreligious cooperation. The book examines how the pope endorses Christians who live their faith in small Christian communities and reveals how such communities can strengthen parish life throughout the world.
Download or read book Laudato Si written by Pope Francis and published by Our Sunday Visitor. This book was released on 2015-07-18 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “In the heart of this world, the Lord of life, who loves us so much, is always present. He does not abandon us, he does not leave us alone, for he has united himself definitively to our earth, and his love constantly impels us to find new ways forward. Praise be to him!” – Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ In his second encyclical, Laudato Si’: On the Care of Our Common Home, Pope Francis draws all Christians into a dialogue with every person on the planet about our common home. We as human beings are united by the concern for our planet, and every living thing that dwells on it, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. Pope Francis’ letter joins the body of the Church’s social and moral teaching, draws on the best scientific research, providing the foundation for “the ethical and spiritual itinerary that follows.” Laudato Si’ outlines: The current state of our “common home” The Gospel message as seen through creation The human causes of the ecological crisis Ecology and the common good Pope Francis’ call to action for each of us Our Sunday Visitor has included discussion questions, making it perfect for individual or group study, leading all Catholics and Christians into a deeper understanding of the importance of this teaching.
Download or read book Francis written by Andrea Tornielli and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Francis, rebuild my Church!" That is how St. Francis of Assisi heard the call of Christ. It is also how Jorge Mario Bergoglio, at the age of 76, and a Jesuit, seems to have accepted his election to the papacy with the choice of a name that no other pope has ever chosen. Who is Pope Francis, elected in one of the shortest conclaves in history? Who is the man chosen to be the first pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit pope? How does he see the world and his ministry? How does he understand his call to serve Christ, his Church, and the world? In short, what is the mind and heart of this new pope of a new world--of the Americas and the rest of the world of the 21st Century? In the words, the ideas, and the personal recollections of Pope Francis--including material up to the final hours before his election--the most highly regarded Vatican observer on the international scene reveals the personality of this man of God, gentle and humble. The son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, he made radically following Christ and the way of non-violence the pillars of his pastoral ministry in a country, continually tormented by social and economic inequities. This complete biography offers the keys to understanding the man who was a surprise choice, even a kind of revolutionary choice, for pope. It is the story of the humble pastor of one of the world's largest archdioceses; a cardinal who takes the bus, talks with common folk, and lives simply. It is the story of why the cardinal electors of the Catholic Church set aside political and diplomatic calculations to elect a pope to lead the renewal and purification of the worldwide Church of our time.
Download or read book The Joy of the Gospel written by Pope Francis and published by Image. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The perfect gift! A specially priced, beautifully designed hardcover edition of The Joy of the Gospel with a foreword by Robert Barron and an afterword by James Martin, SJ. “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus… In this Exhortation I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy, while pointing out new paths for the Church’s journey in years to come.” – Pope Francis This special edition of Pope Francis's popular message of hope explores themes that are important for believers in the 21st century. Examining the many obstacles to faith and what can be done to overcome those hurdles, he emphasizes the importance of service to God and all his creation. Advocating for “the homeless, the addicted, refugees, indigenous peoples, the elderly who are increasingly isolated and abandoned,” the Holy Father shows us how to respond to poverty and current economic challenges that affect us locally and globally. Ultimately, Pope Francis demonstrates how to develop a more personal relationship with Jesus Christ, “to recognize the traces of God’s Spirit in events great and small.” Profound in its insight, yet warm and accessible in its tone, The Joy of the Gospel is a call to action to live a life motivated by divine love and, in turn, to experience heaven on earth. Includes a foreword by Robert Barron, author of Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith and James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage
Download or read book The Twelve Steps to Holiness and Salvation written by St. Alphonsus Liguori and published by TAN Books. This book was released on 1993-11 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 12 Steps to Holiness is compiled from the writings of St. Alphonsus Liguori and is rated as one of the most beautiful and inspiring books by numerous TAN readers. St. Alphonsus develops, in the most simple language, yet with the greatest learning, the 12 key virtues necessary for salvation: faith, hope, love of God, love of neighbor, poverty, chastity, obedience, meekness or humility, mortification, recollection, prayer and self-denial or love of the cross. This book is written with such an encompassing view that its message is for all—religious or layman, the young or the old, the pious or the wayward. The reader will marvel at the balance, the simplicity, the learning, the interest, the calm and the holy unction that penetrate this work. And he will find himself repeatedly marking significant passage and returning to them again and again for instruction and edification. Here is a book, quite simply, for everyone who would save his soul.
Download or read book Post Growth Living written by Kate Soper and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An urgent and passionate plea for a new and ecologically sustainable vision of the good life. The reality of runaway climate change is inextricably linked with the mass consumerist, capitalist society in which we live. And the cult of endless growth, and endless consumption of cheap disposable commodities isn't only destroying the world, it is damaging ourselves and our way of being. How do we stop the impending catastrophe, and how can we create a movement capable of confronting it head-on? In Post-Growth Living, philosopher Kate Soper offers an urgent plea for a new vision of the good life, one that is capable of delinking prosperity from endless growth. Instead, she calls for a renewed emphasis on the joys of being, one that is capable of collective happiness not in consumption but by creating a future that allows not only for more free time, and less conventional and more creative ways of using it, but also for more fulfilling ways of working and existing. This is an urgent and necessary intervention into debates on climate change.
Download or read book The Great Facade written by Christopher A. Ferrara and published by . This book was released on 2015-09-17 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this second edition of The Great Facade, co-author Christopher A. Ferrara brings the original work up to date with six new chapters addressing what Bishop Athanasius Schneider has called "the fourth great crisis" in the history of the Catholic Church. The additional chapters chronicle the attempts at ecclesial restoration by Benedict XVI and the "Francis revolution" following Benedict's mysterious resignation--including Francis's tumultuous Synod on the Family and his radical reform of the process for determining matrimonial nullity, leading to what some call "Catholic divorce" and a threat of schism on the magnitude of the Lutheran revolt of the 16th century. This new look at the 50 years following the Second Vatican Council is sure to provoke discussion and debate among Catholics concerned about the state of their Church. "There is no doubt in my mind that The Great Facade has been prophetic in the broader scriptural sense of the term. Its authors saw that Catholicism was under obvious assault, that the consequences of its rout would be dreadful, and that their failure to take up arms against a sea of enemies would be a punishable dereliction of duty. Those new to the crisis in the Church as well as old soldiers seeking to recharge intellectual batteries can make use of the book's succinct outline of the modernist positions in matters of faith and morality that so swiftly rode to dominance on the back of the Second Vatican Council."--JOHN RAO, author of Black Legends and the Light of the World "One of the most important books of the post-conciliar era, The Great Facade has earned the right to share the top shelf with such masterworks as the trilogy of Michael Davies, Romano Amerio's Iota Unum and von Hildebrand's The Devastated Vineyard. As the original publisher of this magnum opus, I am delighted that Angelico Press has brought out a new edition in which Mr. Ferrara provides six additional chapters documenting the rapid advances of 'the regime of novelty' following what he calls The Benedictine Respite. With its almost literally up-to-the-minute analysis of 'the Francis Revolution, ' this work is now more important than ever."--MICHAEL MATT, Editor, The Remnant "The second edition of The Great Facade tells the story of the crumbling veneer obscuring the glorious Catholic Church, updated to the very eve of its publication. This book is a necessity for anyone who senses the failure of the attempts of neo-Catholics to cover over the cracks in this crumbling edifice of post-conciliar innovation. As always, Chris Ferrara narrates his case against the viruses of novelty and their neo-Catholic apologists with painstaking documentation and a lively and witty style."--BRIAN M. MCCALL, author of To Build the City of God "God is the Most Real Being. In contrast, the note of today's Church often seems unreality--happy talk, avoiding issues, one-sided rhetoric masking self-contradiction and dubious projects. For a while it seemed that repeated disaster might be bringing back a certain sobriety, but no such luck. In such a setting, The Great Facade is more necessary than ever as a spirited brief against the fantasies of recent decades, and an appeal to Catholics and the Church to return to what they have been, in order to become what they most truly are."--JAMES KALB, author of Against Inclusiveness "This long awaited second edition documents the 'regime of novelty' up to the present moment. It contains the most comprehensive analysis of Pope Francis's tumultuous pontificate to date."--JOHN VENNARI, Editor, Catholic Family News " S]uperb--best analysis of the present, parlous state of the Church I have read.... A marvel of clear, careful argument, and utterly persuasive."--JEFFREY RUBIN, convert and former editor of The Conservative Book Club"
Download or read book A Letter to Pope Francis written by Roméo Gauvreau and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2016-01-05 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, the author shares his honest and personal opinions concerning certain attitudes and doctrines of the Catholic religion. His goal in writing this book is not to try to instruct or indoctrinate you. Rather, he wishes to present you with a menu of theories, reflections, and facts he has observed as an ex-Catholic; one who is a staunch believer in the 2600-year-old Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Somehow the Catholic Church has betrayed that rule and finds herself in deep trouble. The criminal conduct of tens of thousands of priests and the Vatican’s cover-up of their actions has become one of the world’s biggest scandals. The Vatican must now follow the United Nations’ directive to open up its files concerning the sexual abuse of children by priests. In the last few years alone, legal suits related to this abuse have amounted to billions of dollars. The Church could end up monetarily bankrupt ... if not morally. But we have a new player on the scene: Pope Francis. He is a nonconformist and shows signs that he is ready to face the music and do whatever it takes to save the ailing Church. Will he overcome the misogynistic attitude of his Church and allow the marriage of priests and the ordination of women?
Download or read book The Great Reformer written by Austen Ivereigh and published by Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since his surprise appointment in March 2013, Pope Francis has emerged as the most talked-about and most revolutionary pope in living memory. He has become a subject of fascination, conversation, and headlines not only to the 1.2 billion Catholics in the world, but to virtually everyone. This biography of Pope Francis describes how this revolutionary thinker became who he is, and how he will use the power of his position to challenge and redirect one of the world's most formidable religions. Drawing on extensive interviews in Argentina and other countries and now featuring an updated epilogue, The Great Reformer traces the roots of his papacy in Francis's childhood in Buenos Aires, in his Jesuit training, and in the dramatic events during the Perón era and the military government in Argentina in the 1970s. It shows how these experiences have shaped his beliefs, and with his commitment to the discernment of God's will, enabled him to challenge and redirect the Church. Pope Francis was elected in the midst of one of the biggest crises in the Church in modern times. This is the story of a true radical who is transforming the Church by restoring what it has lost.
