Blog feed failed after upgrade to V2

[sponna1]

Hi
I have been using code like that shown here to pull in a blog feed o a site homepage
https://www.cmscanbesimple.org/blog/a-x ... ain-smarty
After upgrading to version 2 this code created an error and I have currently taken it off the site.
I noticed in the article it mentions possibly needing to change config.php for new smarty versions.
Is this whats causing the problem in V2? if so is it a good idea to alter as described below
In the latest Smarty releases due to security settings PHP functions aren't available by default... If you do want to use PHP functions, you have to enable them by adding this line to your CMSMS config.php file:
$config['permissive_smarty'] = 1;

This config variable loosens some of the security configuration for Smarty templates. Particularly enabling this option allows the use of any PHP function as a Smarty plugin.
Does anyone know another way to pull a blog feed into V2.
Grateful for any suggestions
Many Thanks