Pope Benedict XVI delivers the Christmas Day message at the Vatican. (Reuters)

New Delhi, Dec. 26: St Paul is said to have delivered a sermon from evening till dawn but in India, the Catholic Church is about to set priests a 20-minute limit.

Keep it short, to-the-point, relevant and interesting, goes the message from the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), which is writing to the various dioceses.

The non-binding time limit applies only to the sermon delivered during the Sunday mass.

“Ideally, it should be 10 minutes. It can go up to 20 minutes but not more than that,’’ a CBCI source said. “Some priests have a tendency to deliver long, boring sermons and most listeners get distracted.”

Perhaps the most famous and influential sermon of all time, the Sermon on the Mount, can be read in less than 10 minutes. The longest, apparently, is a 93-hour marathon by a certain Dr Donald Thomas.

The Sunday sermon, or homily, mostly covers a theme from the scriptures and adds instructions on how to lead a pious life. But the CBCI wants priests to also draw on public issues of the day.

“People are so busy that the sermon really needs to be relevant to everyday life. The preaching should pertain to things that concern them,” the letter being prepared by the CBCI says.

The CBCI has suggested using the “new media’’ to liven up the homilies. Its directive says: “To attract more youth, the priest needs to update himself using the modern technologies.”

Sources said priests would be encouraged to use computers and slides during sermons. This is in keeping with a directive the Pope issued early this year encouraging the use of technology to reach out to the faithful.

Some among the laity are perked by the Church’s move.

“I have often dozed off during sermons; some priests will show no sign of stopping even after half an hour. If the new directive is implemented in true spirit, it will be a great relief,’’ said Sharon Fernandez from Mumbai.

Some, however, feel that “capsule sermons’’ are no good. “Sermons have their own purpose. If a parishioner has no time to listen to the priest, he or she better sit at home,’’ said Kochi resident Mariam Kurien.

Others said it was not a sermon’s length that mattered but its content. “A sermon can be boring even if it lasts only five minutes. The effectiveness of a sermon depends on how it relates to an ordinary person’s life,” said G. Joseph from Bangalore.

The Bombay Archdiocese has been the first to introduce the new time limit, having issued its own circular last week, the CBCI source said.

The Rajya Sabha had introduced a similar plan last year to force members to keep their Zero Hour speeches short. It used German technology that automatically switched off an MP’s microphone after he or she had spoken for three minutes.