I am usually a bit hesitant to believe the media regarding the current Pope. However, they seem to constantly report socialist positions, so there must be something too it.
40 years ago, most Catholics, if the pope declared the sky was green and grass was blue...most Catholics would declare the rest of us as heretics for saying anything against the pope. How things have changed.
At least in America, the pope is not as politically swaying as he once was. I am not sure how that happened. I suspect it aas when the pope and cardinals stood against Ronald Reagan and later when they decried our actions in Afghanistan, and GWBush told them to go fly a kite because we were killing Osama.