"There is a blindness here that comes from a kind of a priestly formation that leaves so many good, decent, gentlemanly men like Francis still carrying an element, a residual element, of misogyny that closes them off to the dangers of not dealing with these issues," Mrs McAleese told RTÉ.
"I think that's where there's a problem with Francis, I don't think that he gets it. Still. He's very gentlemanly, he's a lovely person, everybody likes him and women like him. We love his smile, we love his openness, we love his accessibility, we love his frankness, we love the ease of him. But we also know that that's not enough," she said in an interview with the Irish state broadcaster.
"Many of them think that, if they go there, they think it's to do with the ordination of women. It's not. It's an issue alight but it's by no means the issue," she added.
The former president, who studied canon law in Rome after standing down from the presidency in 2011, caused a stir in 2013 when she condemned the Vatican's attitude to gay rights.
