www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Greeting a Priest

I have a couple of questions on proper conduct within and outside a church:

1-What is the proper protocol for a visitor to a Eastern Catholic Church in greeting a priest both in the church or outside the church?

2-Is the greeting fairly standard within the different rites and different parishes. In other words in a Ukranian Church would the greeting be similar as it would in a Ruthenian Church, and;

3-Would this vary say from one Ruthenian parish to another, or one Ukranian Church to another?

4- When attending a service, in most Roman Catholic Churches a visitor may address the priest as Father and simply shake hands, usually when leaving church. Would that be rude to do that in an Eastern Catholic parish?

My concerns would be as a visitor to a Eastern Catholic Church to be respectful and not rude; but in the same breath I would not want to be presumptious by totally imitating established parishoners with customs I didn't understand (this is assuming that I already took the steps to do the homework by reading about it before hand or picked up a pamphlet at the back of church). When visiting a church my preferred reaction at first would be to be polite but not act like I knew what I was doing by following everyone's lead with everthing if I wasn't sure about it. I think that by being too presumptious one could inadvertly offend someone by attempting to follow others and maybe do something that is more of a breach of proper manners or customs and actually end up being more offensive than if you just follow the polite observer option.

Oh, dear. I regret to tell you that this is not uniform, to put it mildly. But here is my suggestion:

a) proper protocol - cross your hands, right over left, palms upward, and say to the priest "may I have your blessing, Father?" He will bestow a blessing, and set his right hand - with which he has given the blessing - over your crossed hands, but his palm is down. Kiss the back of his hand and thank him.

b) You are moderately likelier to find a priest accustomed to this protocol in a Ukrainian parish, but it is also perfectly proper in a Ruthenian parish.

c) Would this vary . . . ? - Unfortunately it certainly would!

d) Will you be thought rude if you behave as one would in a Roman Catholic Church? Probably not - the worst that could happen is that the Priest would assume that you are a Roman Catholic, or perhaps from one of our severely latinized parishes.

Here's a tip - if the priest wears a beard and a pectoral Cross, he is more likely to be accustomed to give blessings!

Another tip - it is proper for the priest to offer the faithful the hand Cross to kiss at the end of the Divine Liturgy. Join the queue and kiss the Cross, taking the opportunity to kiss the Priest's hand as well. Then take some of the antidoron (the blessed bread which a server is holding on a tray). If you wish to thank the Priest, do so, but don't be overlong about it or you may cause a liturgical traffic jam!

Otherwise, you may not get an immediate chance to do anything. If there is no deacon, the Priest himself must purify the chalice and offer a few prayers, and relatively few people will wait until he has accomplished this and unvested. The same applies at the beginning - before the announced hour, the Priest (and deacon) must to the Preparation (or the Prothesis, if you want the scholarly term), preparing the bread and the wine for the Eucharist; this takes at least twenty minutes or so and there is not much of an opportunity to greet the Priest before the "public" part of the Divine Liturgy begins.

You could solve the whole problem by noting Father's telephone number and calling him at a reasonable hour! Tell him that you've recently attended the Divine Liturgy in his Church several times; he'll probably be delighted by your call.

Fr. Serge

An excellent post !

Thank you!

Fr. Serge

Fr. Serge:

Thank you for your in depth response.

That was very interesting. I must say I didn't know that.

Bomb,

It's part of a larger spirituality that reminds me that this man or more specifically this man's hands bring me Christ and that this man is called out and has a charism that helps connect me with God. I wish to honor that not because the man is perfect but because he is a link to God. I greeted a Roman priest at our University that way and explained what I was doing. He seemed very moved by it all. I hope it helped him realize the importance of his vocation and that there are people in the world who honor that vocation.

CDL

Ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am a Latin Rite Christian, the proper way to greet a priest is not to shake hands with him (unless you are very familiar with him) the proper way is to kiss His Reverence's hand. If it is a Monsignor, then you must kneel on your left knee while kissing his hand (and refer to him as My Lord, or Monsignor).

In Catholic countries and among strongly Catholic people elsewhere it is indeed the custom to kiss the priest's hand. But never in my life have I seen anyone genuflect to a "Monsignor" - unless he happens to be a bishop.

Fr. Serge

You may be right...my bad... (I'll ask the local Monsignor just to be sure)

(its not technically a "genuflect". You flect in front of the Blessed Sacrament on the right knee, and kneel on the left to kiss the hand (and on both knees if the Blessed Sacrament is exposed on the Altar in a Monstrance).

Fr. Serge, Bless!

Is the kiss of peace ever appropriate? I've observed that several times in the UGCC between Priest and Lay people.

Also, how than do you greet a Vladyka? And as an Eastern Catholic would it be appropriate to greet an Orthodox Priest in the same manner? My family (like many) is half Ukrainian Catholic, half Ukrainian Orthodox. I'm never quite sure what to do.

Pavlo

The Kiss of Peace is often appropriate - but it's for the Priest to make the first move, so to speak.

One properly greets a Bishop by bowing low and saying, "Master, Bless" as one extends one's hands to receive the blessing.

It is certainly proper for an Eastern Catholic to ask the blessing of an Eastern Orthodox Bishop or Priest - and it is proper for an Orthodox Christian to ask a blessing from an Eastern Catholic Bishop or Priest. I was in the middle of blessing an Orthodox Christian when another Orthodox Christian, who is a friend, started to interfere. I told him "Don't worry; it's not contagious!" and completed the blessing.

Fr. Serge

Father Serge,
Thank you so much for the information you gave. I attend a very Latinized parish in Southwestern Pa and I was wondering how I might go about trying to bring about the practice of more eastern traditions such as this? Our priest we have now seems very willing but I don't really think the people are. Our Monsenior of over 50 years (at our parish not 50 years old) just passed away before Christmas and we have had quite a few changes--no more kneeling seems to be one of the hardest adjustments-since.
Thank you for any suggestions you or anyone else may offer.
Oh, I dont know if I should mention we are Byzantine Catholic Ruthanian.

Fr. Serge remember Sayedna Raya's hugs? Didn't you feel like heaven had just reached down and gave you a great big hug? I am sure I must have kissed his hand, but it seemed like there was always a hug waiting to be had from him.

THe last two Eastern Catholic bishops whose hands I kissed in receiving a blessing were mortified. Conversely, the younger priests that I have met seem not at all surprised when I ask them for a blessing. I hope this is a sign of a trend. It's certainly a common practice in the Texas parishes.