Ivereigh's wide-ranging and elaborate biography of Pope Francis uncovers previously unseen details of the beginnings of this unconventional pope's ambitious agenda, and where the Church is headed with that agenda.

Based on many interviews in Argentina, Rome and elsewhere and years of study of the contemporary Catholic Church, Pope Reformer tells the story of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a man who rose from the son of middle-class Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires to the spiritual leader of more than a billion Catholics worldwide. This detailed and thorough biography sheds light on largely unknown connections: the influence of the Argentine nationalist movement on Pope Francis and the inspiration of the first Jesuit missionaries; his radical advocacy of a church for the poor; the visionary but controversial way he led the Argentine Jesuits and the breathtaking way he teetered on the edge during the military dictatorship of the 1970s. Based on primary sources and dozens of interviews with his contemporaries, the book describes his remarkable leadership as a bishop and archbishop during a time of crisis in the Vatican, includes a fascinating list of his friends crossing the lines of faith, politics and states and brave resistance to drugs, gambling mafias, and a never-before-seen story of why and how he was elected pope.

Thanks to deep analysis and extraordinary insight, a thrilling story of a man and his journey through the crossroads of faith and politics is created. The reformer pope is an exhaustive account of the emergence of a radical pope.