Constantly in the public eye, Pope Francis is instantly recognisable across the globe, and his likeness adorns t-shirts, mugs, calendars, bookmarks, medals and jewellery, among other things. Too conservative for some, not conservative enough for others, he is the face of the modern Catholic Church.

Yet it has not always been this way. It was only with Pope Pius IX in the mid-19th century that the papacy would become so visible. He was the first to have his picture widely displayed in Catholic households. This was facilitated by mass manufacturing techniques, which enabled cheap books and pictures to be distributed. As a result, the face of Pius IX was better known than any pope before him and a more “popular” image of the papacy took shape.

We have reached an important milestone in that process with the publication of , claimed to be . Originally intended to only be published after his death, instead, it arrives at the start of an important jubilee year within the Catholic Church, which Pope Francis has designated the theme of “.”

Co-written with author Carlo Musso, who has worked with the Pope on several publications before, it claims to be “powerful and intimate,...