As a non-Catholic, can I participate in a Catholic service?

[Suzyqog]

I am planning a trip to Italy and would love to attend a Catholic Mass while I am there. Can you please tell me what I need to do/not do? I want to make sure I am respectful in every way. For example, as a non-Catholic may I make the sign of the cross when I pray? Is it acceptable to genuflect? These may sound like silly questions but I am so excited about this opportunity and I certainly do not want to offend anyone by doing something inappropriate.

Thank you in advance for your time and your help.

Suzy

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Non Catholics are welcome to pray with Catholics at a Mass. However non Catholics are not permitted to receive communion. Otherwise, you are free to genuflect, kneel, sit, and stand along with everyone else.

From the USCCB:

We welcome our fellow Christians to this celebration of the Eucharist as our brothers and sisters. We pray that our common baptism and the action of the Holy Spirit in this Eucharist will draw us closer to one another and begin to dispel the sad divisions which separate us. We pray that these will lessen and finally disappear, in keeping with Christ’s prayer for us “that they may all be one” (Jn 17:21).

Because Catholics believe that the celebration of the Eucharist is a sign of the reality of the oneness of faith, life, and worship, members of those churches with whom we are not yet fully united are ordinarily not admitted to Holy Communion.

All who are not receiving Holy Communion are encouraged to express in their hearts a prayerful desire for unity with the Lord Jesus and with one another.