Do Catholics have to kiss the ring?

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Marie5890 said:
Agreed. 🙂

It’s just really important for people to understand the difference between what is and what is not a requirement.

Attending Mass on Sunday’s and Holy Days of Obligation is.
Kissing the rings of bishops and the Pope is not.
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Right.
 
In all my years of being around bishops and cardinals,and that’s a lot of years, I have only seen someone kiss the ring of a bishop once, and that was a Polish nun. Mostly people just shake their hand.
 
dje101 said:
Ok, so my Dad heard this from a friend of his who is supposedly Catholic. According to my dad’s friend, Catholics are required to kiss the ring of the Cardinals or Bishops, or something like that.

Does anyone know what I am talking about and is this true?
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it is a sign of respect. it is not a requirement
 
dje101 said:
Ok, so my Dad heard this from a friend of his who is supposedly Catholic. According to my dad’s friend, Catholics are required to kiss the ring of the Cardinals or Bishops, or something like that.

Does anyone know what I am talking about and is this true?
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It’s traditional to kiss the hand of a priest, the ring of a bishop.

Note that almost all cardinals are bishops, and the pope is a bishop as well.

In the US, this practice is fallen out of favor.
 
Where I live, I have noticed some of the Asian congregation bob and kiss the priest’s hand…again a sign of respect in a cultural context.

I tend not to genuflect and kiss the bishop’s ring when we see one. I am middle aged and corpulent, and would probably do both of us a serious injury 😃
 
My perspective is, if you wont kneel for communion, you shouldn’t kneel for a Bishop. The body of Christ is superior and should be treated as such.
 
Dymphna82 said:
My perspective is, if you wont kneel for communion, you shouldn’t kneel for a Bishop. The body of Christ is superior and should be treated as such.
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the bishop when he is acting in his priestly and episcopal role is in persona Christi and is entitle to all the respect you would show to Christ himself. To ignore this is to ignore part of the reality of the Eucharist.
 
I wouldn’t kiss the ring.

However, I would bow or curtsey as a sign of respect.
 
In the Orthodox Church, we kiss the hand of our priest when greeting him and ask for his blessing, and also when we venerate the blessing cross at the end of liturgy we kiss the cross and then his hand. Remember that his are the hands that bless us and bring us the holy eucharist.
 
It’s traditional, at least here, to profoundly bow to a bishop whenever he recesses from mass or some other liturgical service.
 
puzzleannie said:
no it is not required, some bishops are very embarrased by it in fact, it is a holdover from days when that was the cultural mark of respect for prelates. You can do it, but it is not required.
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Embarrassed! Oh my gosh, that is so true. After Abp Chaput’s last Mass in the Archdiocese of Denver, a woman kissed his ring in the reception line. Abp Chaput blushed bright red 😊, grabbed the woman’s hands as she rose, and said, “Thank you so much.”
 
puzzleannie said:
the bishop when he is acting in his priestly and episcopal role is in persona Christi and is entitle to all the respect you would show to Christ himself. To ignore this is to ignore part of the reality of the Eucharist.
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You know, I thought about that just after I posted. Thanks for clarifying. 😉
 
Dymphna82 said:
My perspective is, if you wont kneel for communion, you shouldn’t kneel for a Bishop. The body of Christ is superior and should be treated as such.
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I share that perspective. God is God, anyone else is just human like everyone else.
 
puzzleannie said:
the bishop when he is acting in his priestly and episcopal role is in persona Christi and is entitle to all the respect you would show to Christ himself. To ignore this is to ignore part of the reality of the Eucharist.
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can you provide the CCC number as well as scripture verses that this teaching comes from?
 
Dymphna82 said:
My perspective is, if you wont kneel for communion, you shouldn’t kneel for a Bishop. The body of Christ is superior and should be treated as such.
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Wow, thanks for that contemplative information.
 
puzzleannie said:
the bishop when he is acting in his priestly and episcopal role is in persona Christi and is entitle to all the respect you would show to Christ himself. To ignore this is to ignore part of the reality of the Eucharist.
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Yes, but what he was saying is why would you show more reverence to the Bishop in persona Christi than to Christ himself in the Blessed Sacrament?
 
dje101 said:
can you provide the CCC number as well as scripture verses that this teaching comes from?
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I’ll have to have a look around, but when the priest is acting in his priestly role he is acting in Persona Christi, in the Person of Christ. Christ is present and working through the priest, for example during the consecration or when he absolves you from your sins.
 
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