Pope Francis and the Search for Solutions to the Bad Sermon Phenomenon...

[Michie]

From the very first moments of his pontificate—when he emerged onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and famously asked the crowd gathered outside to pray for him—Pope Francis has garnered praise for his approachability and common touch. He has continued to win fans for displaying these same attributes throughout his pontificate, often making headlines for dramatic gestures of compassion. On more than one occasion, Francis has even managed to connect deeply with average believers by speaking to a topic that likely seems minor and basic to outside observers (but not to regularly-churchgoing Catholics): the quality of sermons. In 2015, 2018, and most recently in January of 2023, the Pope has said what most Catholics would likely say when asked about this subject—that is, that homilies are often bad, and unnecessarily long.

The need to reduce the length of homilies has consistently been a part of Francis’s message, with him repeatedly calling for priests to limit their sermons to ten minutes. Most recently, in remarks to a gathering of liturgical directors at the Vatican in January, he modified the standard to “eight to ten minutes” and was blunt on his assessment of sermon quality: “in general, the homilies are a disaster.” While the word “disaster” drew a fair bit of reaction (and concurrence) from outlets across Catholic media, the sentiment was nothing new from Francis. In the past, he has found it necessary to explicitly warn priests that “your homilies should not be boring” and stated outright that “sometimes there is reason to get annoyed about an overly long homily, one that lacks focus or that’s incomprehensible.”

Continued below.

Pope Francis and the Search for Solutions to the Bad Sermon Phenomenon

Kevin Duffy on the art of preaching.

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