Last month he made the cover of Time magazine as its “Person of the Year.” Next up for Pope Francis: Rolling Stone.

Since the papal election, attendance at papal events in the Vatican have tripled to 6.6 million people, Binelli reports. Through quotations from Vatican experts and an engaging biography that shows how the pope struggled through dark times to emerge as the frontrunner for papacy, Rolling Stone presents the pope as a man tied to religious tradition on one hand and fighting to bring the church into a new era with the other. As the cover suggests, “The times, they are a-changin’.”

Look for the new issue of Rolling Stone to hit newsstands Friday. Read the cover story here.