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Nice thoughts, thank you fortune cookie.

Here's some crystal ball gazing.

The next Pope will be a conservative moralist and theologian. There will be no drift from any of the moral or disciplinary stances of the church: abortion, divorce, birth control, euthanasia, married priests.

Further, my bet is that the next Pope will be either a Mexican or a Brazilian, and more devoted to a conservative LITURGY than even JP II was.

I expect he will be a more strict disciplinarian, and especially if he is Mexican, he is not going to be a bit shy about asserting the authority of the monarchic papacy over North American bishops who depart from the doctrines of the Church. Of course, if he is a Spanish-speaking Pope (as opposed to a Portuguese-speaker) he will have dramatic support from the 50% (and growing) of American Catholics who are Latinos, and that support will be enhanced, rather than diminished, if he is very direct about imposing discipline on American bishops.

Another thing I would not be surprised to see is a decree of a general permission, from Rome, for parishes to use the Latin Mass, removing the possibility of bishops blocking that. If the Latin Mass were not able to be blocked locally, because Rome removed the ability of bishops to prevent it, there would be a lot more Latin masses, and THAT would invigorate and embolden the conservative elements of the Church, even as it embittered some of the more liberal elements. (The new Pope, whoever he is, will NOT impose the Latin Mass universally.)

A general return to, and expansion of, the Latin Mass will draw the Roman West closer to the Greek and Russian East because the the prayed liturgy IS the faith. Also, a wide return to the Latin Mass will correct the priest shortage.
The fact is that orthodox, arch-traditional Catholic seminaries are not having trouble attracting candidates. It is the general, moderate to liberal seminaries (who have dominated non-Latino America) who are experiencing the priest shortage.

The new Pope will not be able to be the grand diplomat that John Paul II was. Could anyone be? But I expect he will be much more of a trench warrior in the battle for the heart and soul of Western culture itself. The spiritual war for the Culture of Life in the West is hotter than it has ever been, and the new Pope will, I expect, dig in and fight it. Having a Latin American at the helm will guaranty that no ground is given, even to wavering elements within the Church.

And in the long run, that will make for a Church that moves, by what it does, much closer to Orthodoxy in a step.