“Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future” is the first book written by a Pope in response to a major crisis, and offers the Pontiff’s practical guidance on how to reflect on the pandemic as an opportunity to make a better world.
This is how papal biographer, Austen Ivereigh, presented the book composed of many exchanges between him and Pope Francis the summer following the coronavirus lockdown, today via Zoom.
Simon & Schuster will be publishing the work on December 1, 2020, in dual English and Spanish editions simultaneously. It will also be published by the publisher’s audio division and Simon & Schuster’s international companies in Australia, Canada, India and the United Kingdom.
Written simultaneously in both languages, Pope Francis addresses humanity the great questions facing the world at this time, drawing from his experience and episodes from his own life.
While noting that the conversations due to the pandemic couldn’t really take place physically together, Austen welcomed a “new modus operandi” where he would often address the Pope in Spanish in emails and the Holy Father would often leave him long voice messages, sometimes hours long. Austen praised the great trust and humility of the Pope in their exchanges.
The author describes the work as Francis’ “spiritual guidance for a world in crisis, a personal manifesto for profound social change, and a summons to each person to choose a better future.”
In a press release from the publisher, the conversations in the book address: “the protests over the death of George Floyd; why Pope Francis thinks women in the crisis have proved better leaders, and why female economists offer a blueprint for the new kind of economy the crisis shows we need; the origins of the abuse crisis in the Church – and the parallels with the #MeToo movement.”
Moreover, it discusses: “why change can only come from the margins of society – and a politics centered on fraternity and solidarity; polarization in Church and society, and how differences can be made fruitful; Why the Pope favors a Universal Basic Income, and strong curbs on a neo-liberal market; economy to enable access to work and greater equality, and ecological recovery; the need for a new kind of politics beyond managerialism and populism rooted in service of society and the common good; and the origins of the environmental crisis.”
In addition, the conversations, it notes, will share Francis’s personal “Covids,” “periods of crisis in his life that profoundly changed him.”
One can order the book on Amazon.
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