text: My mother is very hostile to this pope - she feels he's doctrinally too 'liberal'.  I've told her to relax, he's a smart man (whatever anyone says about people devoted to a religious life, no one can deny that to be a Jesuit you have to be smart and rigorously educated), and much of what he say is cleverly crafted to encompass modern sentiment without really going against doctrine.    
  
  And how can you argue with his emphasis on the original Christian message, before it got co-opted by emperors and kings, which was one of love and compassion and a life of the spirit? 
  
  He's trying to bring the Church into the 21st century, have it survive and remain relevant, which I believe was why he was voted in as pope in the first place.  He's doing a good job, even if his detractors are too blinkered to see it.