Doug R I do think assigning the terms Liberal and Conservative to describe a Pope's beliefs is a bit far fetched though. Those terms should be reserved for politics I believe.

The idea of liberal and conservative (small l and c) have been in use to describe theology and ecclesiology for a very long time. Neither is an exclusively political word and it is not in the least far-fetched to use them to describe religious belief.

I would, for instance, describe my own belief system as "theologically conservative but ethically fairly liberal". Those terms, in church usage, date back a long way.

Frank L.