Robert Mickens, the prominent Rome-based reporter and commentator, is now editor in chief of Global Pulse magazine, a new venture that brings together five publishing partners from around the world (including Commonweal) for an international Catholic perspective. Perhaps of even more interest to readers: Mickens’s Letter from Rome is back, and we’ll be featuring it on our website, beginning right now. From his fresh debut:

Pope Francis is facing resistance to the changes he’s trying to bring about inside the church. This opposition comes from the ranks of seminarians and younger priests, as well as a number of bishops.

“The resistance is coming from those that don’t want to change,” says professor Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant’Egidio Community here in Rome….

Precisely because there is substance to changes the seventy-seven-year-old pope is trying to make, especially in his efforts to root out clericalism, resistance to him has grown. It is not, however, good form for priests or bishops to go around bashing the bishop of Rome. (Nor is it particularly good for one’s clerical career.) So they must select another target.

Read all of “Taking the Hit for Francis?” here. And remember to check back weekly for a new Letter from Rome.