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You see, you find one statement where he says he "regrets" that other forms of cohabitation are put on an equal level with traditional marriage. But I could read such a form as "man and woman living together outside of marriage" it's very non-specific). In fact as Bishop of Buenas Aires he wrote "“A marriage (made up of man and woman) is not the same as the union of two people of the same sex. To distinguish is not to discriminate but to respect differences… At a time when we place emphasis on the richness of pluralism and social and cultural diversity, it is a contradiction to minimize fundamental human differences. A father is not the same as a mother. We cannot teach future generations that preparing yourself for planning a family based on the stable relationship between a man and a woman is the same as living with a person of the same sex.”

This was in a letter about how he was for civil unions but not calling it marriage. So the sin doesn't bother him but he thought "just don't call it marriage". Actually that pretty much mirrors my libertarian minded position, but then again I'm not a religious and moral leader so I can afford to back a laissez faire policy. Can a Pope? Perhaps. But does he still?

Even if he does still oppose gay marriage it isn't the only thing I was referring to when I said he was driving the church to the secular left viewpoint. As I noted previously his statements are frequently "corrected" by the Vatican after the fact to reassure us that the pope doesn't actually disagree with church doctrine as he clearly seemed to be saying. Over and over and over. Come on.

He is at best a confusing, inconsistent, and muddled communicator. Perhaps he is a muddled thinker too. Or perhaps the "corrections" are just damage control and he does indeed mean what he actually said. It's easy for me to be inconsistent and muddled in my thinking and arguments; nobody is looking to me as a moral compass, a defender of the faith, to speak with firmness conviction and clarity on church doctrine. People do look to the Pope for that and frankly, he comes up short.