German bishops will ask Rome to allow laity to give homilies

In 2023, participants in Germany’s “Synodal Way” called on the country’s bishops to “draw up a particular norm and obtain permission for this from the Holy See, according to which the homily can also be taken over in eucharistic celebrations on Sundays and feast days by theologically and spiritually qualified faithful commissioned by the bishop”.

The bishops had discussed the Synodal Way resolution on lay preaching at Masses in detail and adopted a regulation that would govern the practice, said German bishops’ conference chairman Bishop Heiner Wilmer.

“We now want to ask for approval for this regulation in Rome. We have agreed that I will take this with me on my next visit to Rome and explain and promote it once again in discussions there,” he said on February 26.

The Synodal Way noted that it was already a “long-standing practice” in German dioceses for “persons who have qualified themselves through studies in theology and have been sent by the bishop into the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel” to preach at Masses.

It suggested the practice could be extended to include religious education teachers, “trained people for leading liturgies of the word”, and “spiritual leaders of associations”.

The German bishops’ conference approved a document in 1988 that set out norms for commissioning qualified lay men and women to preach in specific contexts. This could be an introductory address at the beginning of the service, “provided that the celebrant is unable to give the homily and no other priest or deacon is available to do so”.

The Vatican responded negatively to the Synodal Way resolution shortly after it was passed.

German Catholic media reported in March 2023 that Cardinal Arthur Roche, the prefect for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship, had written to the then-bishops’ conference chairman Bishop Georg Bätzing, rejecting arguments in favour of lay preaching at Masses.

Cardinal Roche suggested that “misunderstandings about the figure and identity of the priest” could “arise in the consciousness of the Christian community” if lay people preached in place of clergy.

The German request is also inconsistent with canon law.

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German bishops to ask Rome to permit lay homilies (By Luke Coppen/The Pillar)