hes very cool
now watch how the vatican political machine goes after him
Unless he's got buggered altar boys in his past, I'm not completely sure they can. I guess they could undermine any of his more technical initiatives in terms of actual implementation. Not counting the outright corruption, financial and powerbrokering, a lot of the opposition in the Vatican is of the more liberal/worldly persuasion. And I can't see how they're going to find fault with his recent messages indicating that while the catechism isn't going to change on the issues, pursuing the "culture war" on homosexuality and birth control isn't going to be a priority going forward is going to make them line up against him.
I think if he doesn't demand some huge audit of the Vatican's books beyond maybe letting it be known he wants an end to a few of the most egregious abuses, they'll leave him be.
Real life isn't some Dan Brown novel, I don't
think they're going to poison him, or set up a new anti-pope in Avignon.
If there's actual movement on married clergy, I think the main downside is this is the pope who
could have saved the Catholic Church in America... if he'd been selected 20-30 years ago.
An itinerant priest who has to handle 3-4 parishes, or when they can't sustain even that, an import from S. America or Africa who can barely say mass in English, that's not going to cut it.