Several important new perspectives on Pope Francis were reported recently, including “From Benedict to Francis”, an extremely informed, insightful and frank interview with the UK Tablet’s Robert Mickens, accessible at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/religion/secrets-of-the-vatican/robert-mickens-from-benedict-to-francis/

Selections from this full interview were shown recently in a significant  USA/TV documentary, “Secrets of the Vatican”. The full documentary is on the PBS Frontine website and accessible here:  http://to.pbs.org/1fkZvZC

Also, the Irish Times’ reported on the recent Cambridge University lecture  on “Governing the Church” by former Irish President, Mary McAleese, accessible at: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/give-women-more-influence-in-church-mcaleese-1.1708923 

Robert Mickens studied in Rome in the 1980′s as a seminarian at the top Catholic Gregorian University. He has been The Tablet’s Rome correspondent from 2001 to 2003 and from 2005 to the present. His decade plus of honest and direct reporting from Rome has enabled him to develop a deep team of sources in the Vatican Curia. He also writes the paper’s popular weekly column, ‘Letter from Rome’. Mickens is regularly featured as a Vatican-affairs analyst for the BBC in Great Britain, ABC in Australia and National Public radio in the United States.

 

Mary McAleese had been President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011, when many of the worst child sexual abuses of Irish Catholic priests were uncovered, mainly in extensive judicial investigations. Before serving as President of Ireland, Professor McAleese was law professor at Trinity College Dublin and later a Vice-Chancellor at Queen’s University Belfast. She is currently studying for a doctoral degree in canon law at the Gregorian University in Rome. She has a long-standing commitment to issues of social justice and a keen interest in Catholic social teaching.