Vatican rejects proposal to allow women and laypeople to deliver sermons at Mass

The Vatican on Tuesday reaffirmed a long-standing rule that only an ordained priest or ​deacon can give a sermon at a Catholic mass, ‌rejecting a request from German bishops to broaden the practice and allow sermons by women or other laypeople, Reuters writes.

“The current discipline cannot be dispensed ​from,” said a release from the Vatican’s Dicastery for ​Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, ⁠which oversees worship by the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

“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 release said.