“I kept thinking and thinking about her. When I returned to the seminary after the wedding, I could not pray for over a week because when I tried to do so, the girl appeared in my head. I had to rethink what I was doing,” he said.

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At that point, he could have thrown in the towel and turned his back on the church altogether.

“I was still free because I was a seminarian, so I could have gone back home, and that was it. I had to think about my choice again. I chose again – or let myself be chosen by – the religious path.”

He said it would have been “abnormal for this kind of thing not to happen” because he was a teenage boy just like any other, albeit one who was destined one day to lead the Roman Catholic Church.

Despite his brush with romance as a young man, he has upheld the rule that Catholic priests should be celibate.

Earlier in his papacy, he appeared cautiously open to the idea of dropping the mandatory celibacy requirement.

But more recently he ruled against allowing married men to be ordained, maintaining that the life of a priest should be devoted exclusively to God and his congregation, without the distraction of a family.

The autobiography covers a broad range of topics, from his childhood in Buenos Aires to the challenges of managing the Vatican.

The Pope also indulges his love of football, devoting an entire chapter to fellow Argentine Diego Maradona, whose notorious “hand of God” goal against England helped his country to World Cup victory in 1986.

Years later, when Maradona visited the Vatican, “I asked him, jokingly, ‘So, which is the guilty hand?’“, Francis writes in the autobiography.

The Pope insists that he is thick-skinned and has learned to shrug off the criticism he receives, much of it from conservatives who are mortified by some of his reforms, including allowing priests to bless homosexual couples.

“If I had to follow everything that people say about me, I would need to consult a psychologist once a week,” he said.

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Describing the Vatican as “one of the last absolute monarchies in Europe”, he said the institution needed to change.

He reiterates his position that while he would consider resigning, like his predecessor Benedict XVI, if he became mentally or physically incapacitated, he sees no reason to step down for now.

Resignation is currently a “remote hypothesis” and would only be justified if he was afflicted by a “serious physical impediment”.

He has recently suffered from several bouts of flu and bronchitis, had major intestinal surgery a couple of years ago, has trouble walking and often appears at public audiences in a wheelchair.

The Telegraph, London

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