"religious illiteracy" - what an interesting term.
Self-interest religion is institutionally politicized from times immemorial. Does "illegitimate" and "illiterate" in the political sense mean somewhat the same thing?
Religion isn't something that can be politicized without abominating its literacy, authenticity and legitimacy. Authentic religion, true literacy, belongs in the public domain - not proprietary to any one brand of politics -- but especially, not proprietary to monarchy.
In practice today, religion is pretty much a loose football, used to score points in the wide-open public scuffle for advantage, money, etc..
Bottomline, religion authentically is about being Eucharist to (and with) one another and all other in real life - irrespective of competitive politics. The problem is, religion has from times immemorial been one with the competitive sport of politics, which does not have much to do with "literacy" -- more about come-up-man-ship.
Pope Francis's is in a win/lose game.