I'd agree with your objection to DIY theology, trebb, but the ironic thing is that preaching "anything you wanted" is exactly what popes did NOT do in the Middle Ages.
Mind you, there were dozens of unsatisfactory popes in the Middle Ages and even more in the Renaissance, BUT their "unsatisfactoriness" mostly stemmed either from their ineptness, OR from the fact that they had no regard for theology whatever, but were absorbed in their personal worldliness and vices. There were some real crooks who were highly into income enhancement, shady ladies, living in a palace in Avignon and/or making their bastard sons cardinals, But they didn't give a flip about Theology.
That's the thing. They didn't mess with theology because they were frankly bored with it. Frisky courtesans were much more fun. But they did not try to overtly preach that "lust is good". They did not change the doctrine: they merely violated it.
The uniquely disturbing about this Argentinian Peronist of ours is that--- rather than quietly practicing personal vice like an ordinary scoundrel--- he IS intensely interested in theology. That is, he's always got his eyes fastened on the changeless truths of the Faith and the Eternal Moral Law. Because he is interested in *changing* them.
That makes far more dangerous than an ordinary clerical crook. Because your own sins can send you, personally, to hell, but doctrinal tinkering could lead thousands, millions, or tens of millions astray.
That makes Bergoglio more like Martin Luther than like Rodrigo de Borgia.
As usual, thanks so much for your kind and knowledgeable response.