"The truth is most likely way beyond what any of us want to hear...It may be time to listen to the spiritual traditions that are older..." 
So well put. Ours also merits such rediscovery, as Mokantz writes above.  I believe that the restoration of conscience is the opening up of question in good will, of wonder and the mystery of mystery.  Without wonder there is no real appreciation. The old folk hymn, "I wonder as I wander..." is a lesson in maturing faith.  Our tradition has been "squeezed" into a narrow patriarchal envelope and buried in an overwhelming concrete of certainty. 
I think that much of the disappointment with Francis is because he isn't, refuses pretense of being "saviour" for church.  This angers the traditionalist minded of left and right. He is sorta trying to move the church out of the way....