The German bishops will formally ask the Vatican to permit lay preaching at Masses, new conference chairman Bishop Heiner Wilmer has announced. Wilmer said the request to Rome to permit lay homilies originated in a 2023 resolution approved by participants in Germany’s controversial “synodal way.” Wilmer, who was elected bishops’ conference chairman last week, said the bishops had discussed the synodal way resolution on lay preaching at Masses in detail and adopted a regulation that would govern the practice. “We now want to ask for approval for this regulation in Rome. We have agreed that I will take this with me on my next visit to Rome and explain and promote it once again in discussions there,” he said.
