“He gave me a large white box,” Francis writes. “Documents relating to the most difficult and painful situations. Cases of abuse, corruption, dark dealings, wrongdoings.”
“Everything is in here,” Francis recalls being told; “now it’s your turn” to deal with it.
In the book the pope writes that he has felt “called to take responsibility for all the evil committed by certain priests,” CNN reported.
A photograph of the pair sitting with a white box between them fuelled speculation at the time.
Francis, previously known as Jorge Bergoglio, uses the new book to tell the story of his youth in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he grew up in a large family and was passionate about football and the tango. He admits getting into a fight as a young man with a fellow student who “even lost his senses” after hitting his head when thrown to the ground, and insists that even as leader of the church he still commits “mistakes and sins.”
“I feel I have a reputation I do not deserve, a public esteem of which I am not worthy,” Francis writes. “This, beyond doubt, is my strongest sentiment.”
The memoir tells of key moments in his papacy, including the two assassination attempts he faced during a 2021 visit to Iraq, as revealed last month in an excerpt in Italian daily Corriere delle Sera.