“I love punctuality, it’s a virtue I’ve learned to appreciate,” Pope Francis writes in the fifth chapter of his autobiography, which will be published Tuesday in 18 languages, adding that he considers it “a sign of good manners and respect to arrive promptly.”

Unfortunately, as a newborn, Francis writes, he arrived a week late, necessitating a call to the doctor, who sat on his mother’s stomach and began “pressing and ‘jumping”’ to induce his birth.

“And that’s how I came into the world,” writes Franjo.

“Hope: The Autobiography” of Pope Francis — a 320-page collection of the pope’s reminiscences and reflections on the major social and political issues of our time, including climate change, poverty, immigration, arms control and war, is billed by the English-language publisher, Random House, as “a historic publication” and “the first memoir published by the Pope”.

That’s technically not true. That honor belongs to Pope Pius II’s 15th-century chronicles, the “Commentaries,” a 13-book account of his life that is considered a key text in Renaissance humanism.

Francis is also not the first pope to share his life story. As a cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger wrote an autobiography that was published in 1997, eight years before he became Pope Benedict XVI, and he and his predecessor, John Paul II, together with journalists wrote books that were personal reflections, and not official papal documents.

But for readers, including the Roman Catholic faithful, “Hope” vividly recreates the colorful world in which the young Jorge Mario Bergoglio grew up – a world that was a menagerie of migrants from various countries and colorful figures, including prostitutes, his “marsupial” aunt and other memorable members families.

People who follow Francis closely will recognize in the autobiography many of his positions from his various encyclicals, his weekly addresses in the Vatican and speeches during his travels. “Hope”, however, draws a line from events and encounters from childhood that shaped Franja’s thinking to this day.

Francis’ unwavering support for migrants, he writes, stems from his own background as the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina. His abhorrence of war — “anyone who makes war is evil. God is peace,” he writes in “Hope” – finds its roots in his grandfather’s war experiences in the First World War. “Nono described the horror, the pain, the fear, the absurd alienating meaninglessness of war,” he writes. The left-leaning biomedical pharmaceutical researcher he met before entering the seminary “he taught me to think – by that I mean to think about politics.”

Many personal memories are described in the book: as a young teacher teaching creative writing, Francis writes, his students nicknamed him “Carucha” or “Babyface.” He recalls that on one occasion he helped the almost blind Jorge Luis Borges to shave. “He was an agnostic who prayed the Lord’s Prayer every night because he had promised his mother he would and would die with the last rites.”

Franji is no stranger to journalistic cooperation. A book about his life written from an interview he gave to Argentine journalist Sergio Rubin was published while he was still Cardinal of Buenos Aires.

Since he became pope, there have been a few more: Francis wrote “Let Us Dream” with his biographer Austen Ivereigh, a first-person story exploring how crisis can be a positive catalyst for change during the coronavirus pandemic. The book made it to the New York Times bestseller list. Last year, “Life”, a book full of anecdotes written with Fabio Marchese Ragon, has been published worldwide and made the Times list.

“Hope” was six years in the making and is one of the best-kept secrets of the publishing world. Originally, Francis intended to publish the autobiography posthumously, but changed his mind last summer so that the publication would coincide with the jubilee year of 2025, a holy year of the Catholic Church that takes place every quarter of a century.

Mondadori, the Italian publisher, announced the imminent release of the book at last year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, causing excitement, not only among Franciscan biographers.

The autobiography was an opportunity, said Mr. Iverneigh in an interview, “for Francis to enter into episodes of his life, about which his biographers, including myself,” speculated, debated “and sometimes struggled to interpret.”

But while rich in anecdotes about Francis’ childhood in a Buenos Aires neighborhood, episodes Mr. Iverneigh described as “gems,” the book doesn’t offer much insight into Francis’ later life beyond what is already “well-trodden material.”

For example, Francis talks little about the years he spent in the Vatican. His comment that “the reform of the Roman Curia was the most demanding and that for a long time there was the greatest resistance to change” offers no details of the struggles involved.

“The Pope is the Pope and it’s great to have his thoughts repackaged for a mass audience,” said Mr. Iverneigh, who added that he believed the pope saw these books as “tools for evangelization.” But, he added, “I was honestly disappointed” to find that most of the original material had been relegated to his childhood years.

Perhaps the most interesting excerpt in the book is Francis’ recollection of his visit to Iraq in 2021, which was published as an excerpt in the Jesuit magazine America in December. Francis wrote that he survived two thwarted assassination attempts. Former governor of Nineveh later denied that such incidents had taken place. The Times also published an excerpt from the autobiography in December, this one approx to have faith in humor.

Gian Maria Vian, former editor-in-chief of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, said he appreciated the “many personal details” the book added to Francis’ biography, but that much was written through “rose-colored glasses”.

Franjo wrote the book with Mr. Musso, the former director of the publishing house Mondadori who recently founded an independent publishing house. The idea arose in 2019, and the works began a year later.

“I was honored by his confidence,” Mr. Musso said. “I don’t think he wanted an autobiography to talk about himself, but to use his memories, his stories, to talk about everyone and everything, even very difficult moments.”