Pope Francis is a breath of fresh air. It’s heartening to find so many people, especially young ones, enthused about him. But popes come and go; Francis is my seventh. Meaning: my expectations are tempered by not only what popes can and cannot do, but what they are likely to do. Francis is no exception.

The just-adjourned synod has prompted many conversations about the twists and turns of the bishops’ remarks and the synodal statements. What will Francis say on these "family" issues a year from now? Is there a certain irony in his beatifying Paul VI, who in 1968 turned aside the advice of a papal commission and confirmed the church’s ban on the use of artificial contraception? That more than many factors lies at the heart of the malaise Francis is trying to heal. So then, is the beatification a signal closing a fissure in the church’s history by accepting the sense of the faithful on this issue?

Or will the paradoxes of Catholicism prevail: the church accepts gay unions while continuing the ban on contraception.