No one — not even a liturgist — can unerringly predict the future. How many Catholics attending Mass in 1962 knew that the Roman Missal issued that year would be the last of its kind?
How many Catholics at the start of 2007 sensed that restrictions on the 1962 missal, in place since the reform of 1970, were about to be lifted?
And how many Catholics suspected that use of the 1962 missal would be curtailed once again in 2021?
The answer in each case is surely very few. So when it comes to predicting the future of Catholic liturgy, a little modesty is in order.
