German bishop: Vatican case against lay preaching ‘not entirely consistent’

Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz, Germany, who chairs the pastoral commission of the German Bishops’ Conference, said the Vatican’s reasoning on the ban on lay preaching is, in his view, “not entirely consistent” on some points.

The Vatican — specifically Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments — rejected a request from the German bishops in June arising from the Synodal Way for permission to let a commissioned layperson preach in place of the homily at Mass in exceptional cases.

Kohlgraf said the Diocese of Mainz observes the ban but that lay preaching has become customary in some of its parishes and that he will neither authorize it nor move to stop it.

“The letter from the liturgy prefect says that the only one who preaches at Mass is the priest who celebrates it,” Kohlgraf told the official news portal of the German bishops’ media arm, katholisch.de . “But a priest who concelebrates, or a deacon who takes part, would then logically also not be permitted to preach at that Mass.”

“In any case, in the Diocese of Mainz we abide by the Church’s directive that laypeople do not preach a homily at Mass,” the bishop…