The Path to Change

I nearly rejected The Path To Change out of hand when I was invited to review it as I didn't think it would be relevant to me or that I would understand enough of the conversation to make the reading worthwhile. I'm British and, as a nation, we haven't been especially welcoming to Catholics since Tudor times plus, personally, I am an atheist with a limited school knowledge of only the most popular Bible stories. Having recently enjoyed reading philosophy with the Alain de Botton books though and being encouraged by the publisher's actively seeking non-religious readers' opinions, I took the plunge!

I have thoughts both on The Path To Change as a book and on Pope Francis' words so I will write separately about each aspect. The book itself is quite a dense read. Its chapters each focus on one of twelve conversations between Pope Francis and French sociologist Dominique Wolton and I think their words are pretty much transcribed verbatim (in translation of course!). I found Wolton's introduction too pompous for my tastes, but he is obviously very much in awe of Pope Francis and comes across at times as being endearingly eager to impress him. This is a book, I think, to read slowly and muse over. I certainly found that I couldn't digest more than a chapter at a time, which is very unusual for me, and then felt the need to go walking or sit quietly alone. I wonder if reading The Path To Change as a buddy read would have been useful in order to discuss the ideas while they were still fresh in my mind?

Regarding Pope Francis' words, I was quite expecting to disagree on far more points than I actually found that I did. He comes across as surprisingly worldly for such a cloistered man, is obviously very well read within his field and beyond, and also has a talent for genuine communication. I understand that I will never agree with his restrictive views on homosexuality or the rights of women and actually got annoyed when his assertion in one chapter that women should lead the way in the Europe-wide fight against terrorism was then bluntly snubbed in a later chapter by there being absolutely no chance that women would ever lead the way within the Catholic Church! However I can get behind his ideas on greater and more effective communication between faiths, and certainly support his repeated denunciations of arms dealing and the putting of money above people. If only there wasn't such ostentatious gold displays in churches! On the whole though, I found I actually had a lot of time for Pope Francis - which was good as this book did take ages to read! - and think his tenure as Pope will be beneficial for the world.