Argentine publisher reissues book on Pope Francis

In this undated picture released by journalist Sergio Rubin, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, right, kisses the hand of late Pope John Paul II during a ceremony at the Vatican. Bergoglio, who took the name of Pope Francis, was elected on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. AP

MEXICO CITY— The naming of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis has inspired the enthusiasm not only of many Roman Catholics, but also of a publisher planning to re-launch a book about him by his official biographer, Sergio Rubin.

“The Jesuit. Conversations with Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio” will be reissued Tuesday as “The Jesuit. The story of Francisco, The Argentine Pope,” said Maria Estomba, a spokeswoman for the Argentina-based publishing house Ediciones B.

Ediciones B now owns the Latin American publishing group Vergara, which in 2010 issued the original Spanish-language book.

The book is based on two years of conversations Rubin and a fellow journalist, Francesca Ambroguetti, held with then-Cardinal Bergoglio, but isn’t strictly a biography, Estomba said.

The publishing house has plans in the future to translate the book into several other languages, she said.

In addition to being the subject of this and potentially numerous other books in the future, Bergoglio has authored several of his own, including such titles as “On Heaven and Earth,” co-written with Abraham Skorka, and “Dialogues between John Paul II and Fidel Castro,” co-written with then-Pope John Paul II.