According to Church law, homilies at Mass are “reserved to a priest or deacon,” but lay people can receive permission to preach in a church or oratory, “if necessity requires it in certain circumstances or it seems advantageous in particular cases.”
In a report issued at the end of the bishops’ Feb. 23-26 plenary meeting in Würzburg, Wilmer said the request to Rome to permit lay homilies originated in a resolution approved by participants in Germany’s controversial “synodal way” on March 10, 2023.
The document called on Germany’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 resolution 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 expanded to include religious education teachers, “trained people for leading liturgies of the word,” and “spiritual leaders of associations.”
Continue reading at The Pillar