Pope Francis has said that homilies are often a “disaster”, asking priests to keep them within ten minutes and leave people with a distinctive image or message.
“Please, the homilies – they are a disaster,” he told diocesan liturgical directors who had gathered in Rome for a course, “Living Liturgical Action Fully”, run by the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy at Sant’Anselmo university.
“At times I hear someone [say]: ‘Yes, I went to Mass in that parish … yes, a good lesson of philosophy, forty, forty-five minutes … Eight, ten, no more! And always a thought, a sentiment and an image. Let people take something home with them.”
Francis's remarks, made in a speech on 20 January, immediately struck a chord with Catholics on social media, many of whom voiced agreement that homilies need to be improved.
A homily, which takes place after the scripture readings during the Mass, is intended as a commentary on the sacred texts of the liturgy.
“My mom's great-uncle was a priest, and he had a saying that ‘no souls were saved after 10 minutes’,” Ellen Lynch, a communications professional living in Raleigh, North Carolina, in the United States, wrote on Twitter.
“It is so true. I once was at a Mass where the homily was 50 minutes!!! Do I remember anything beyond how it felt like torture? Nope.”
The Pope’s comments on homilies also chimes with the results of the global consultation of Catholics which took place for the synod process.
“The quality of homilies is almost unanimously reported as a problem,” reports the working document for the synod, Enlarge the Space of Your Tent, which synthesises findings from local synod processes across the world.
“There is a call for ‘deeper homilies, centred on the Gospel and the readings of the day, and not on politics, making use of accessible and attractive language that refers to the lives of the faithful’.”
According to the Second Vatican Council’s document on the liturgy, a priest’s homily should expound “the mysteries of the faith and the guiding principles of the Christian life” by using the readings of the Mass and is a “highly esteemed as part of the liturgy itself”.
Describing the homily as a “sacramental”, Francis said it must be prepared in prayer and with an “apostolic spirit” and pointed out that this was not the first time he had raised concerns about homilies.
“We know that the faithful attach great importance to it, and that both they and their ordained ministers suffer because of homilies: the laity from having to listen to them and the clergy from having to preach them!” the Pope wrote in 2013 in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, which serves as a manifesto document for his papacy.
“It is sad that this is the case. The homily can actually be an intense and happy experience of the Spirit, a consoling encounter with God’s word, a constant source of renewal and growth.”
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