It seems a betrayal to even write these words. I'm a progressive Catholic who longs for a church that is more welcoming of women, homosexuals and divorced people.

I want a church where the hierarchy spends more time talking about liberating the poor and oppressed and less time lecturing about birth control.

I pray for a church that comprehensively faces the causes of child sexual abuse so we can have confidence such systematic evil will never occur again.

Francis - global superstar, media darling, a truly modern pope - is the best hope people like me have had for many years, right? He's the second coming of John XXIII, isn't he?

I confess that I am starting to doubt it.

Francis swept into the Chair of St Peter with such animation and apparent determination to up-end the traditional notions of how popes ought to behave.

Washing the feet of prisoners, including women and Muslims. Refusing to live in the Apostolic Palace. Apparently calling a woman who married a divorced man in a civil ceremony to assure her it's OK to go tocommunion. Refusing to judge homosexuals.

"I love this guy," proclaimed the Daily Show's Jon Stewart. Catholics everywhere - especially progressive Catholics, but also those who were lapsed or just bored - enthusiastically agreed.

Last month Francis made a curious comment in an interview marking the second anniversary of his election as pope:

I have the feeling that my Pontificate will be brief: four or five years; I do not know, even two or three. Two have already passed. It is a somewhat vague sensation. Maybe it's like the psychology of the gambler who convinces himself he will lose so he won't be disappointed and if he wins, is happy. I do not know. But I feel that the Lord has placed me here for a short-time, and nothing more ... Continue reading

• Kristina Keneally is a former premier of NSW.

At last count, the post had attracted more than 700 comments, the vast majority in agreement with her.

The idea that there's a national war on Christmas is going strong in the USA. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's new book, "Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas," is at No. 14 on The New York Times best-seller list for hardback nonfiction. Continue reading