'Pilgrimage: My Search for the Real Pope Francis'

(Vatican Radio) A new book on Pope Francis,  shortly to be published by Random House, aims to challenge and inspire the reader and explore how Francis’ ministry has struck a chord in the heart of millions – both Catholic and non – across the world.

Written by Mark Kennedy Shriver, President of Save the Children Action Network, the book is entitled ‘Pilgrimage: My Search for the Real Pope Francis’.

Due to be put on sale on November 29, the book has already received praise from critics and others who have had the chance to preview it. Like Cardinal Sean O’Malley who highly recommends it and suggests it can make a difference in the life of the reader.

Speaking to Vatican Radio’s Alessandro Gisotti, the author said his interest in Pope Francis – and in the man, Jorge Mario Bergoglio – was sparked as soon  as the newly elected Pope stepped out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Square on March 13, 2013 and asked the crowd to bless him…

Listen to the interview:

“I have long admired Pope Francis, really from the moment he became Pope when he asked the people to bless him instead of him blessing the people right off, when he was on the balcony at St. Peter’s” he says. 

Mark K. Shriver goes on to mention the significance of a series of gestures of the newly elected Pope Francis such as paying his own hotel bill, choosing to visit suffering migrants on the island of Lampedusa, washing the feet of the young kids at a juvenile facility. 

“I’ve worked with juvenile delinquents in Baltimore city and that is really tough. To wash their feet is something that I would never have the courage to do. So he caught my attention from the beginning of his papacy and his humility, his mercy and his commitment to the poor all struck me” he says. 

Shriver explains he really wanted to go further and find out exactly who Jorge Mario Bergoglio was: “And that is why I wrote the book”.

He says he was given a huge opportunity to spend two and a half years reading his homilies his talks, and talking to his friends in Argentina, Rome, and America. 

“It was just a fantastic journey to learn more about the man and to gain better insight into his relationship with God and it really inspired me” he says. 

The title of the book refers to a pilgrimage and Shriver points out that it is like a journey during which there are various discoveries to be made by the reader: 

“I think that there are a couple of very interesting pieces in the book. I think first of all I was stunned when I went and saw his room in Buenos Aires and the room that he lived in, in Cordoba for two years. He is so austere…a twin sized bed in a very small room with one bureau with just a couple of drawers for his clothes. He doesn’t own a lot, he is very frugal and he is completely committed to Jesus” he says. 

Shriver says one of the questions he struggled with was, ‘who is this man?’: “The answer to me is whose is this man and who does he belong to? He belongs to Jesus, he is really committed and he has committed his entire life to the calling and message of Christ”. 

The author also talks about Francis’ capacity to make one question one’s own beliefs right down to the core because of the way he lives,  of what he says and of the way he acts. 

“The way he acts and what he says is so completely consistent that is forces me, as an American and as a human being, to look at the way I live, the way I act, and the way I treat people. So I hope the reader will first of all realize that this guy is a great teacher and he challenges us to look at the way we think and the way we behave, what we say and help us to be a better human being” he says. 

Asked what is new in this book on Pope Francis, Shriver points to the focus on the Pope’s commitment to those to whom a voice is never, or rarely given.
 
He refers specifically to the speeches Francis have given to a group that he  has met three times receiving almost no publicity:

“The representatives of the Popular Movement -  he was with them just a few days ago, on Saturday November 5th  - and I think the way he interacts with those people from all around the world together with his commitment to seek change from ‘the bottom up’ is really profound”.

Shriver says he first heard about these meetings from a man named Sergio Sanchez who collects cardboard and trash in Buenos Aires. 

“He is a friend of the Pope’s and he told me he had spent three days at the Vatican with Cardinal Turkson and with Pope Francis and I thought, ‘Wow that’s crazy!’ I couldn’t even believe it was true and it received no coverage in the New York Times or the Washington Post or any of the big news paper and media outlets here in the United States, and then I found it online in an article about that meeting” he says. 

He points out that the Pope met two more times with representatives of the Popular Movement and comments on the fact that Francis’ commitment to those people “who aren’t big shots, who aren’t rich, who aren’t necessarily influential, really, I think speak to who he is in his very essence”.

“He believes that the church should be a field hospital, should be out on the frontier interacting with the poor, helping the poor, but learning from the poor and listening to the poor. He has done that throughout his life and he is doing it now and just recently in the Vatican as well and that I think is profoundly insightful as to who the man is and what he wants for the Catholic Church to be” he says. 

In the book the author writes that Pope Francis is an inspirational figure,  like Shriver’s own uncle, President John F. Kennedy was, and he speaks about what it is in the vision of Jorge Bergoglio that strikes him the most:

“I think that the most challenging part of his vision is that he really is challenging us to go out and ‘to get our shoes muddy’, as he says. ‘To smell like the sheep’ and that means to be out working with people, listening to people that are poor. I think when he says poor he doesn’t mean people who are just financially poor but those that are suffering physical, emotional, or spiritual poverty. And that really means is all of us. Because we are all suffering to some degree. We are all sinners. He is challenging us to have mercy for each other, to spend time with each other and to get out of our comfort zones. I think great leaders challenge us to get out of our comfort zones. They challenge us to be better human beings to reach out, to create more of a community. That is a message we can all benefit from here in the United States and around the world. Get out of our comfort zones reach out to our neighbors but also the stranger on the street and really help them and learn from them. It is not a one way relationship. People that have resources aren’t just helping the poor; the poor are helping us as well to learn how to be more merciful, to learn how be more human to each other. That is what a great leader does. They challenge us to be better human beings. I think that is what President Kennedy did” he says. 

I think, Shriver concludes: “that is what Pope Francis is doing today. He is a prophet and prophets challenge you to be a better human being”.