I am also a convert to Catholicism. I’ve been a Catholic for many years and have been a member of five parishes in as many states. I have not found the church to be liberal. Like you, I notice that politics is left out of the mass other than discussions about the right to life and general exhortations to help the poor and downtrodden, the latter not necessarily through government. I find both of these moral teachings fully in keeping with the New Testament.
Like all churches, Catholicism has its share of liberal nutjobs and no shortage of moderates who blow in the political wind, but I do believe that the church overall does a better than average job of keeping politics out of the pulpit. And no one can call the last two Popes anything other than staunch conservatives.
I live in the Los Angeles Archdiocese and that should help to explain the situation here. I was basing my assessment on the publication of the local church, THE TIDINGS. I can’t read it. But, no, I don’t think the radicals run the Church.
Pope Benedict XVI is revealing himself as more lovely and courageous with every pronouncement. No problem with the Popes, thank God...:)