Francis’ papacy recorded in a book of quite magificent photography

Pope Francis: A Photographic Portrait of the People’s Pope

by Fr Michael Collins, featuring exclusive photography by Rodolfo Felici

(Dorling Kindersley, €28.00)

The magnificent images by Rodolfo Felici are the reason for this book. Fr Michael Collins, a Dublin-based priest, with an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Vatican, provides an introductory text, a commentary and the numerous captions.

But the real story lies in the images. Photographer Felici is a member of a family firm founded in Rome in 1864, very soon after the new art became established. The images reveal his own vast knowledge of the background of the architecture, the rituals, and the annual round of the Vatican City.

Felici has also a fine eye for the human scale of things as well as the formal and stately. 

The pictures are filled with moments of both happy joy and quiet reflection. The contact between pastor and people is palpable, especially when young people are involved.

This book being about Pope Francis it also covers Bergolio’s own unique background and the impact which his trips abroad have had all around the world. 

Here too images of sheer happiness prevail.

The book is published to coincide with the Pope’s five-day visit to the US in late September. For many of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, this will be the most popular Pope Francis book of the year.