But on the Pope you must concede that the leftwing media, and Conservatives are not just hallucinating this, he is in fact on the left on every single position he's liturgically permitted to be on the left on.
The problem with that is that while he does occasionally say things that appeal to traditionalists, he rarely says them, as if he's obligated to say such things as the cost of getting to talk about what he really wants to talk about, which is income inequality and (non-existent) global warming.
He spoke in long stretches on Nancy Pelosi's agenda. So naturally I was not moved by his speech.
Nope. I will not concede that point.
For example, he IS "liturgically permitted" to change the Catholic Church's rule for allowing ONLY celibrate, unmarried men to be ordained. This is one of the MOST conservative rules of ANY Christian denomination in the world, and it is NOT dogma of the church (several married men from other denominations have converted to Catholic and been allowed to keep their ordinations)
Under Catholic canon law, the Pope could unilaterally change this rule tomorrow. If he was such a "radical marxist progressive liberal reformer", he would have jumped at the chance to do so (probably his FIRST week in office!), and get fawning praise from the mainstream media for being such a forward-thinking, inclusive pontiff.
In fact, even many "very conservative" Catholics would be OK with that rule change.
But he chooses not to, and the issue is not even on his priority list.
I can name numerous other examples, but your premise is simply wrong. Pope John XXIII was probably must more a "Rock the boat" type who wanted to liberalize the Catholic Church, than this guy.
I will agree that the mainstream media gives coverage of him being "on the left" of "every single position" they can find to broadcast.