Pope Francis Pulling the Church to the Left?

Many, if not most, progressives and people on the left are atheists who view the Catholic Church as a barrier to positive social change.  Pope Benedict was more interested in doctrinal orthodoxy than promoting causes of social justice.  As Cardinal Ratzinger he hounded those who wanted change out of the church. A particular target were the priests in Latin America who, in accordance with Liberation Theology, made a common cause with the poor in an effort to effect political change.   In 1984 Cardinal Ratzinger issued his Instruction on certain aspects of "Liberation Theology", forbidding the political activism of the priests:  

"The acute need for radical reforms of the structures which
conceal poverty and which are themselves forms of violence, should not let us
lose sight of the fact that the source of injustice is in the hearts of men.
Therefore it is only by making an appeal to the 'moral potential' of the
person and to the constant need for interior conversion, that social change
will be brought about which will be truly in the service of man. [33] For it
will only be in the measure that they collaborate freely in these necessary
changes through their own initiative and in solidarity, that people, awakened
to a sense of their responsibility, will grow in humanity. The inversion of
morality and structures is steeped in a materialist anthropology which is
incompatible with the dignity of mankind."

As a consequence, the Church stood on the sidelines or stood with the autocratic rulers who resisted any eoncomic reforms.  The Catholic Church has lost much of its moral authority throughout the continent, and is struggling to keep its flock from defecting to fast-growing Evangelical Christian groups.

However, with the new pope – Francis – things are changing at a fast pace.  Pope Francis has not explicitly embranced Liberation Theology, but he has made social justice and the plight of the poor the central focus of his papacy.  He is – up to now, at least – the anti-Benedict. 

For some on the Left, such as Roberto de Lapuente, Francis is a pope that they can work with to effect progressive change: 

Es geht doch nicht darum, wie er von diesen Menschheitssorgen spricht,
sondern einzig darum, dass er es tut. In Zeiten, da die Gleichgültigkeit
gegenüber den Armen zunimmt, in denen der Kapitalismus uns als
Naturgesetz verabreicht wird, kann sich die politische Linke keine
atheistische Arroganz mehr leisten. Wenn Menschen einen Gott oder dessen
Statthalter auf Erden benötigen, um sich für das Soziale und
Ökologische zu sensibilisieren, dann muss das der Linken recht sein.

Dieser Papst schwebt nicht über den Sorgen dieser Erde und flüchtet
sich, wie seine Vorgänger, in die Theorie seines Glaubens hinein. Er ist
Praktiker, brennt als Salz in Wunden und sucht die Vergessenen und
Benachteiligten unmittelbar auf. Muss man als Linker nicht auch die
Coolness haben, diese Leistung anzuerkennen, auch wenn der Mann aus
einem geistigen Milieu kommt, das die politische Linke gerne verspottet
und verachtet?

(It doesn't really matter how he talks about the concerns for humantiy, but just the fact that he does it. In time when there is growing indifference to the poor, in which capitalism is codified as a law of nature, the political Left can no longer retreat to atheistic arrogance. For if people require a God or His representative on earth to become aware of social and ecological causes, then the Left must accept this.

This pope doesn't turn from the concerns of this earth and flee into the theory of his faith like his predecessor. He is pragmatic, burns like salt in the wounds and seeks out the forgotten and the disadvantaged.  Don't we on the Left need to have the coolness to recognize this achievement, even though the man comes from a spiritual milieu that the political left likes to ridicule?)