Vatican rejects proposal to allow sermons by Catholic women

The Vatican on Tuesday reaffirmed a long-standing rule that only an ordained priest or deacon can give a sermon at a Catholic mass, rejecting a request from German bishops to broaden the practice and allow sermons by women or other laypeople.

“The current discipline cannot be dispensed from,” said a release from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, which oversees worship by the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics....