The Vatican on Tuesday reaffirmed a long-standing rule that only ordained priests or deacons may deliver sermons during Catholic Mass, rejecting a request from German bishops to broaden the practice to include women and other laypeople.
“The current discipline cannot be dispensed from,” said the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, which oversees worship in the Catholic Church’s 1.4 billion-member global community.
Catholic Masses often include a homily, in which a priest or deacon reflects on the day’s Bible readings. Earlier this year, the German bishops’ conference asked for permission to allow laypeople to preach as well.
The request echoed views held by bishops in the United States and several European countries, who argue that many laypeople are just as capable of preaching as priests. Supporters of the change also say they would like to hear sermons from women, who cannot be ordained in the Catholic Church.
The Vatican did not release its full response to the German bishops, providing only a press statement summarizing its decision.
“The reservation of the homily to a priest or deacons is not a merely disciplinary norm but derives from the very nature of the liturgy,” the statement said.
The Catholic Church teaches that during Mass, a priest acts “in persona Christi” — in the person of Christ — and that God acts through the priest during worship.