Posted on 08/11/2026 7:50:45 PM PDT by ebb tide
The Vatican's reasoning for the ban on lay preaching is "not entirely consistent," Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz told Katholisch.de on August 11.
"The letter from the Prefect for Liturgy states that only the priest celebrating Mass may preach. But taken to its logical conclusion, that would mean a concelebrating priest or an assisting deacon shouldn't be allowed to preach either."
Lay Preaching Is No Problem
In the Diocese of Mainz, occasional lay preaching has become an established practice and Bishop Kohlgraf has no intention of changing that.
In some parishes, "it is customary for laypeople to preach," he said. "If I hear about it, I won't take disciplinary action or impose canonical sanctions."
"Denunciations" Are a Problem
Bishop Kohlgraf is concerned that the directive from Rome could encourage "denunciations": "There are people who report liturgical violations straight to the bishop and write directly to me. That happened before too - individual people would complain to me - but now they’re demanding that I intervene. Some even write to the nuncio or directly to Rome."
The bishop responds politely and calmly, forwarding the complaint to the respective parish priest.
Bishop Kohlgraf would welcome an indult formally permitting lay preaching.
"The letter from the Prefect for Liturgy states that only the priest celebrating Mass may preach. But taken to its logical conclusion, that would mean a concelebrating priest or an assisting deacon shouldn't be allowed to preach either."
Even a blind squirrel will find a nut every once in a while. So the Prefect for Liturgy is careless to the point of being goofy. But what self-respecting Catholic, much less a bishop, can use this for an excuse?
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Ping
Go ahead, Baghdad Bob, and blame this synodal heretic on the SSPX, like you do with every other ill in the synodal “church”.
Appreciate the labelling of this picture with the [AI] tag. In the interests of getting at the real situation, is there a real picture of this individual to go with?
Personal note: I don’t know what infected the German mind, but there’s been a steady undercurrent of “can’t we just make our own creation and order God around” for about 250 years...
Are there even any valid Masses being offered in Germany?
A bishop, a priest, a deacon, all have a commission to preach that a layman doesn’t.
At my FSSP church, the same priest gives the sermon at all the Masses on a given Sunday (except the Spanish sermon Mass), including when a different priest is offering the Sacrifice. Technically, the sermon is a suspension of the Mass proper, so it isn’t an issue. What is an issue is who is allowed to preach from the pulpit. It is someone who has received Holy Orders.
The country is broken from hundreds of years of bad actors in leadership. Not surprising at all that only morally stricken individuals are in charge of things there.
He has an unusual hat and scarf Ebb.
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