So, this guy is a lefty... he is like the most liberal pope of all time.
I don't think that I agree. He is a mystic, he is very conservative in much of his writing, he fought hard against Godless State Communism when such a fight ended many holy lives. He may well be one of the least able administrators Rome has seen, but measured against over 100 predecessors, he probably is not the worst. As a non Italian, I bet he had as much traction in Rome in the beginning as Jimmy Carter did in DC.