“B16 is so much more conservative than JP2.”
I remember when JP2 died, and people asked me what name his successor would take. I thought it might be Pius XIII, and assured them it would not be JP3 - we couldn’t have another 25 years like that.
Paul Vi was the most liberal pope we have ever had. And if you think that John Paul II was loved by liberals, you surely don’t remember the 1979 confrontation between him and the leader of the LCWR, nor his efforts to get the Jebbies under control, no rejection of liberation theology Without him, there would be no Ratzinger, no catechism. Politically, all the recent popes have been more liberal than an old fashioned Democrat like Sam Rayburn or Lyndon Johnson, except with respect to Marxism. Theologically, all incuding Pope Paul, have been conservative.