text: The constraints of what a writer-friend of mine called "TEMPORAL PROVINCIALISM"--the natural limits of looking at the past and predicting the future with only what we know now--preclude lasting assessment, but...I think Francis has set the stage for:
  
  . Begrudging respect for the laity heretofore disallowed and mocked...
  
  . Continued  limited assent to the wisdom of women...
  
  . A priesthood that--but not appreciated until a century later--was changed but not revolutionized...
  
   . Taking human sexuality off the table as a credible issue for celibates...
  
  .  Telling cardinals and others, "Catholicism is elite, but not elitist;  put away your finery and your arrogant claims of special authority"....
  
  . In the short-term re-adjusting a pendulum that had been guided far right by immediate predecessors...
  
  . Changed demographics of Church leadership, "far more so than was appreciated at the time"...
  
  . Set the stage for a damaging  over-reactive "return to JP II" movement.
  
  I could be wrong.