Pope Francis Is Not a Progressive

It would be nice if our idiotic media would stop portraying the pope as being another simple progressive: in his own words, he is not a center leftist, and to portray him as such is an "oversimplification":

If you don’t follow European politics, the Social Democrats are the main center-left party, so it’s a bit like an American asking the pope if he’s a Democrat. 

Francis actually laughed out loud, and then said: “Caro, questo è un riduzionismo!”
The Italian basically translates as, “My dear friend, that’s an over-simplification!” 

Francis went on to talk about how he tries to follow the Gospel and the social teaching of the Catholic Church, not any party line... 

In truth, the idea of Francis as a Social Democrat in Strasbourg — and, therefore, as a repudiation of the Catholic Church’s perceived drift to the political right under Pope Benedict XVI — depends entirely on listening to only part of what Francis had to say.

The mainstream media is rather corrupted, and thus corruptive. It twists the pope's words, and really it flat out ignores those things which he says about retaining the Church's moral teachings:

Had it been Benedict who journeyed into the heart of secular Europe and said the exact same things, the question likely would have been: “Holy Father, are you on the far right?” The difference has little to do with what Francis actually said, and everything to do with how the narrative dictates he should be perceived.

It's all about the angle, or the narrative. It's all about getting the people to buy into the story.