In his new book, Holding Out for a Hero, The Long Wait for Pope Francis, Fr Brendan Hoban reminisces on his fifty years in the priesthood which he divides into two parts: the first 40 years which he describes as ‘a long, dark night of the heart and soul as the vision of the Second Vatican Council and the hope it inspired for the Catholic Church faded into the mists of history’; the last ten years under the leadership of Pope Francis as he awakens and renews the promise the Council represented; and the key challenges facing our Church at this time of transition.