Interesting article and I think he's right. BXVI is throwing all the chips onto to the table.
I liked the above phrase, btw, because I think JPII was very close to the US political neo-con movement in his thinking and conduct. He never really challenged anything, he never reexamined the precepts, he never enforced even his modest demands.
JPII wasn't a bad person, but like many neo-cons of any type, he was simply weak and gave his enemies much more credit than they deserved. They were trying to destroy the Church; he was trying to protect the Church while being nice to them. Fundamental conflict, and the Church lost.
I remember that when JPII was elected, he said he was going to take up the torch from JPI (who had announced his intention to reverse or seriously modify VII). That didn't last very long, and after the assassination attempt, he became much more conciliatory. In fact, he abandoned his authority altogether and devoted himself to taveling the world and blessing bizarre liturgical appearances, all the while spending his evenings writing prolix, unfocused works about everything in the universe.
However, God has His own plan, and while I think JPII could have changed the history of the world for the last 30 years with only a few strokes of the pen, he was what he was, and probably his trips garnered many converts in a very emotional and turbulent time.
So who am I to say?