If you get restless about the length of homilies, just be thankful it’s not worse. A new survey suggests that Catholic priests give the briefest sermons, with a median length of 14 minutes, compared to an average of 37 minutes across denominations. The Pew survey, conducted in the United States, found that historically black Protestant churches averaged 54-minute sermons (though thus includes musical interludes and call-and-response exchanges), whereas Mainline Protestant pastors preach for an average of 25 minutes. Evangelicals are somewhere in between. Deacon Steve Kramer, who teaches homiletics, told the Catholic News Service: “The numbers sound right to me.” He observed that the Eucharist takes up more time and attention in a Catholic Mass than a Protestant service.