px_eliezer_
From what I read, Francis put through some changes in style, but hardly did anything to change doctrine.
This is correct and presumably it’s because he recognized the seriousness of affecting dogma when some of his opinions bordered on heresy. I have a feeling the new Pope will be a little less opinionated, a little more unifying, and a little less “progressive” while maintaining existing dogma, basically a watered down version of the last Pope.
Pope Francis never moved ahead with having women as Deacons, even though there was support for that, and even though historians point out that even in the Roman Catholic church there WERE women deacons in the past.
I wouldn’t say that so matter-of-factly as it is an extremely contentious topic. Some would argue that a female deacon existed as far back as the New Testament (Romans 16:1) based on the fact that Phoebe was a servant of the church and the words that were used but debating this goes beyond the confines of this forum and there’s compelling arguments for both sides of that debate. The position was a little less formalized back then so I could go either way on the topic.
Personally I don’t see an issue with it in Novus Ordo churches as they already use female helpers to deliver the Blessed Sacrament to the hand however the FSSP, SSPX, and most Orthodox churches deliver it to the mouth directly from the priest (unless the priest is away or the deacon is providing services outside the church).
However you’ll have a hard time convincing millions of Catholics to receive mass or communion blessed by a female priest especially if younger generations are veering more towards traditional masses over the more common masses.