The Vatican re-affirms that Homilies in the Liturgy are for the ordained.

Homilies to be preached by priests and deacons.

This is a point of doctrine in the Church I find interesting, as well as being an opportunity:

In a letter dated June 17, 2026 addressed to the President of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Heiner Wilmer, the Dicastery communicated that it is not possible to grant the indult requested on March 30, 2026. An indult is “a special (and often temporary) favor granted to a physical or moral person by the Apostolic See (or the local ordinary) which confers faculties contrary to or beyond the prescriptions of the law.”

The German Bishops had requested “to permit, in exceptional circumstances, a duly commissioned lay member of the faithful to preach in place of the homily during the celebration of the Eucharist.”

tl;dr – a homily at Mass may only be preached by an ordained minister, a priest or a deacon.

Opportunity?

The thing about this particular request from Germany is that it goes above simply having a lay person say something in church. It’s not uncommon for lay Catholics, shoot, even non-Catholics to speak to a congregation. What these bishops wanted was for a non-ordained person to preach about the Gospel.

I’m not sure what the Germans specifically wanted a lay person to talk about.
When I was a kid, I remember a visiting priest came to our parish to preach for Palm Sunday. He invited a pathologist to speak on the wounds and torture described in the Passion of Christ, from a forensic perspective. It was pretty gruesome, as you might imagine. I’m sure this was dismissed as “not preaching,” since it was quite technical. Why do it? Because the Eucharist is when you have the most ears listening to what the Church has to say. If you had this guy come to the men’s club to talk, elementary-school age me wouldn’t have that nightmare stuck with me, some sixty years later.

Women?

That’s no doubt what the Germans thought. Someone wanted to make a point better made by a speaker who’s not ordained. I can think of a very positive example of where this makes sense: have a woman preach.

Now, that’s the rub. A woman can’t be ordained. End of discussion? The Dicastery seems to think so, and that’s a shame. That’s why this could have been an opportunity. Even if they start with non-ordained men, it would open doors in a world where the number of men pursuing a vocation as deacon or priest is shrinking.

Clergy?

When I speak to groups about my book, Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, I often show a photo of a Mass in the Conlin Gym at Brother Martin High School where all the alumni of the school who now teach there came up after Mass and posed in front of the altar. While I don’t argue with the Institute on who is or isn’t a Brother, those men are, for all intents and purposes, the current generation of Brothers. They may not profess vows, but they have the vibe. They embody the Educational Charism of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.

The Church at large needs to find new ways to embrace the laity. While folks (rightfully) love Papa Leone for his positions on war and Trump, this decision is a reminder that Catholics need to keep pushing to improve how they express their faith.