"Can anyone imagine that, after Pope Francis, synods will go back to being rote affairs in which there is no genuine dialogue? Will a future pope be credible if he even tries to order edicts from on high with no consultation and only a set of syllogisms by way of explanation? Can we imagine a future pope bringing back the regalia of the Counter-Reformation and, more importantly, the attitude towards authority in the church that regalia represents? Of course not."

WRONG! If there's one thing the election of Donald Trump has taught us, it's that there is a bottomless capacity within human nature to make abrupt about-faces and revert back to antediluvian ways of doing things that seemed unthinkable after a period of relative progress. No, it is entirely conceivable to me that the Vatican can and probably will revert right back to their old ways of doing things after Pope Francis leaves. In fact, they will probably calcify into something worse than before. Because that's what humans do.