Vatican Shuts Down German Bishops’ Bid For Lay Preachers
The Vatican shut down German bishops’ bid to allow lay preachers at Mass, drawing scrutiny over ongoing tensions between Rome and the progressive European country.
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The Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and Discipline for the Sacraments announced Tuesday it had denied the German Bishops’ Conference’s March request to allow lay people to deliver a homily during Mass, even in exceptional circumstances.
Sent to Bishop Heiner Wilmer, the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, the Vatican’s June 17 letter said it is “not possible to grant the indult requested” by the bishops, the dicastery’s press release wrote. An indult is a special permission in the Church granted by appropriate authority that allows for exceptions to the canon law. (RELATED: Trump-Backed Megachurch Pastor Ends Campaign After Texting Scandal With Former Pageant Queen)
“The reservation of the homily to a priest or deacon is not a merely disciplinary norm but derives from the very nature of the liturgy,” the dicastery wrote.
The German bishops had requested in March that “in exceptional circumstances, a duly commissioned lay member of the faithful to preach in place of the homily during the celebration of the Eucharist.”
The Vatican stressed that the homily, delivered after readings from the Bible, is part of the liturgy of the Mass and “represents an exercise of the munus docendi entrusted to ordained ministers through the sacrament of holy orders.”
“This norm has been repeatedly confirmed by the Magisterium, especially in the instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum (nos. 64-66), which expressly excludes the possibility that lay faithful may give the homily during the celebration of Mass, even under another designation,” the letter stated.
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The Church’s Code of Canon law states that, while “lay persons can be permitted to preach in a church or oratory” in special circumstances, the homily “is part of the liturgy itself and is reserved to a priest or deacon.”
The German bishops’ bid for lay preachers builds on years of tensions between the German church and the Vatican. Since German bishops launched a reform convention called the “German Synodal Way” in 2019, the Vatican has repeatedly warned that the bishops’ actions are a “threat to the unity of the Church.”
Participants in the German synod have voted in favor of female priests, blessings of same-sex marriages, and changes to the Church’s teaching on homosexual acts. (RELATED: Italian Archbishop Sparks Backlash After Surprise Mass In Milan’s Gay District)
Pope Leo reiterated the Vatican’s rejection of the German church’s blessing of homosexual couples in April, saying, “The Holy See has made it clear that we do not agree with the formalized blessing of [same-sex] couples, […] beyond what was specifically, if you will, allowed for by Pope Francis.”
The bishops’ request to permit lay homilies originated in a March German Synodal Way resolution, the Pillar reported.
The German Bishops’ Conference released a press statement Tuesday but did not indicate a particular response from the bishops.
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