Prognostications

It is time for me to guess at the happenings and non-happenings that will or will not happen in 2008. Any and all such predictions are based solely on my innate ability to analyze current trends coupled with the better part of a bottle of Ravenwood Zinfandel.

Let me begin by tipping my hat to Fr. Tim Finigan of the Hermeneutic of Continuity. He has a delightful post on 10 Things he is pretty sure that will NOT happen in 2008. Read the whole thing but here are some of my favorites:

8. The Bishops of England and Wales will enthusiastically welcome the clarifications of Ecclesia Dei regarding Summorum Pontificum and issue their own clarification repudiating any previous statements from them not in accord with it.
AND
10. The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales will feature “Alleluia Cha Cha” at their annual Requiem.

Starting off the new year right with a Paul Inwood dig. I like it. Anyway, on with my sagacious prognostications some of which are serious and some are not. You figure it out.

• Pope Benedict will celebrate the Traditional Liturgy publicly causing great celebration among supporters of the traditional liturgy but also a rash of suicides at the National Catholic Reporter. Take the good with the bad.
• Pope Benedict will accept the request of the Traditional Anglican Communion to unite with the Church dramatically extending and modifying the Anglican Use in the process.
• The Papal Nuncio will sit down with Damian Thompson to solicit his feedback on who should be the next Archbishop of Westminster.
• Mark Shea will decide that a little torture isn’t really that bad and spend the remainder of the year writing in support of the practice and of the administration.
• Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the Traditional Latin Mass will continue to grow and become an ordinary part of parish life. People will soon forget why they were so afraid in the first place.
• Pope Benedict will lift the excommunications on the bishops of the SSPX only to have to excommunicate them again one month later for endorsing gay marriage and womynpriests.
• The media, soliciting a quote on a story about the Pope, will contact Fr. Thomas J. Reese, S.J. and he will respond by saying “I think that the Pope is exactly right and this is a great thing he is doing!”
• After several more high profile bishops in the Anglican Communion swim the Tiber, Rowan Williams will declare his intention to become a Unitarian.
• It will be dramatically revealed that frequent commenter on the Creative Minority Report using the nickname “Fritz” is actually Pope Benedict. This is revealed during an ugly incident in which commenter David L Alexander tells Fritz that he didn’t understand the first thing about the Pope’s intentions when he wrote Spe Salvi. Incredibly, upon learning of Fritz’s true identity, David L Alexander refuses to retract his comment.