These were published in the magazine La Civilta Cattolica and in 15 other Jesuit journals internationally, and attracted a great deal of interest.
Spadaro has now taken these interviews, expanded them with explanations and his own reflections, and reformatted them into a book. The result, unfortunately, has a rushed feel about it. There's a good deal of repetition, sometimes within a few pages, and the occasional editorial problem. The translation is like the curate's egg, only good in parts. There are times when it reads well, and times when it's decidedly clunky, as though it is translator Shaun Whiteside's first draft rather than the finished work.
So what of the content? I jotted down page after page of things I wanted to return to and think about. Pope Francis is a man of vastly different character to his predecessor, for which we can be grateful, and sees the Church's role as opening the doors and going out to people, not just opening the doors and hoping people will wander in. In this he's vastly more evangelical than many Catholic clergy, and it's to be hoped that his views permeate the Church as a whole.
Francis has a wonderful warmth about him, a servant-heart, a regard for the humanity of people in spite of their waywardness, a delight in the physical world and in the arts, and a concern to bring change to the increasingly outdated structures that inhibit the Catholic Church from moving forward. All these things are apparent in the book, and though it may at times take some sifting to get to the nitty-gritty of what he has to say, the effort is well worth it.
- Mike Crowl is a Dunedin writer, musician and composer.
