ADVERTISINGWaiting to know who will be the successor of Pope Francis before Fumata Blanca, there are who Trust your intuition about the future Pontiff to the readings. Between the Via della Coniliazione and the Plaza de San Pedro, the volumes signed by the most mentioned cardinals as papable are increasingly demanded.
Between the death of Bergoglio and the beginning of the conclave, the books of Matteo Zuppi, Luis Antonio Tagle, Jean-Marc Aveline, Pierbattista Pizzaballa and those edited by Pietro Parolin fly from the shelves. The most attentive faithful try to capture among their pages traces of thoughtspirituality and even the political orientation of Francisco’s possible successors.
Among the privileged observers is San Paolo library, en via della conciliationa historical institution in the shadow of the dome. Its manager, Francesco Trotta, has been working in the Vatican’s heart for 20 years: “This is my third conclave,” says ‘Euronews’, “weeks before the death of the Pope, sales of books on Bergoglio began to increase: when Francisco’s state worsened, many people began to look for their writings. After his death, however, there was an acceleration: not only biographies, but above all its teaching, from the last encyclical ‘dilexit nos’, to the most famous ‘laudato yes’, or ‘Amoris Laetitia’.
Readers’ look is now addressed to the possible successors: “Every day there is a new name that seems to be the favorite and that is why people ask if there is any book that has written,” continues Trotta, “there is a growing interest in the books that explain how the conclave works, including the new rules introduced by Francisco himself.” But there is also something else, explains Francesco Trotta: “Positive anxiety is perceivedthe desire to understand, to imagine who will direct the Church in the near future ‘.
Conclave out of limits, but not in books
According to Trotta, Illustrious visits have not lacked: “Some cardinals have come to bookstoresalso because many come from abroad and here they find texts that can be difficult to find in their countries. “To the question of whether a secretary has come on behalf of some cardinal to buy a book to take it to the conclave, he said that you cannot know, but” it is possible, “Trotta replies.
Pope Francis himself, in his first AndgenHe said that in those days he had the opportunity to read a book by Cardinal Kasper. “Do not think I advertising the books Of my cardinals! I don’t do it. But he did a lot of good, “Bergoglio had underlined.
Pope Francis’s biography is the best -selling book in Italy
While the eyes of the world are put in the cardinals, Libraries also celebrate The legacy of the outgoing pontiff. It is no accident that the best -selling book in Italy is ‘HopeThe biography of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Published on January 14, 2025, the book travels through the intense life of the Pontiff that “came almost from the end of the world.”
After Francisco’s deathon April 21, ‘Spera’ jumped to the top of the sales lists: first place in Amazon Italy in the Category of Christian Institutions and Organizations and second in the Roman Catholic Church section.
In all Vatican libraries the title is still exposedtoday next to the texts of future potatoes, as to underline the continuity thread, or rupture, between the Pope that was and the one who will come.
