Live from Rome on a decade of Pope Francis

Sunday

Edward Stourton is live in Rome reflecting on ten years of Pope Francis. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected in extraordinary circumstances and his first actions a decade ago marked him out as someone with a different style and priorities to many of his predecessors. It was expected to be a period of great change but how much has he actually achieved?

Hear from two men who’ve been training for the priesthood at the Venerable English college in Rome, an institution that has been educating seminarians for hundreds of years. Find out how much Francis influenced their decision to take holy orders, and why they regard him as a great example as a parish priest.

The Synod on Synodality has been called ‘the biggest consultation in human history’. It’s Pope Francis’s attenpt to listen to ordinary Catholics across the world and find out what they think of their Church and how it interacts with the world. We follow the process of the Synod starting with Janet Obeney-Williams, who gathered the thoughts of her parish, to the writer Austen Ivereigh who synthesised feedback at a national and global level and finally to Sister Nathalie Becquart, the Undersecretary of the Synod and the only woman who gets to vote on it. And Edward is joined by Vatican experts Sylvia Poggioli, Loup Besmond de Senneville and Gerard O’Connell to look at the road ahead for the church

PRESENTER: Edward Stourton EDITOR: Helen Grady PRODUCERS: Catherine Murray, Katy Booth, Louise Rowbotham-Clarke STUDIO MANAGERS: Phil Booth, Jonathan Esp and Simon Highfield PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR: David Baguley