How are Catholics to show respect to the Pope?

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My Protestant sister-in-law thinks that Catholics commonly kiss the big toe of their pope as a sign of respect and loyalty. Where would I find the truth of this matter? What is the protocol for showing respect to the Pope in person?
 
Big toe? :eek: where did she get that info from?
What is the protocol for showing respect to the Pope in person?
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Same like how people show loyalty to their monarch king in days past – by kissing his papal ring. 👍
 
Big toe idea may have come from the touching of the foot of the bronze statue of St. Peter at the Vatican. Hundreds of years old but I think the toe fell off last year.
 
incorrect, i was there a couple weeks ago and the statue was intact.

as to respect for the pope, kneeling and kissing his ring is the typical sign of respect for the office of the pope, as the cardinals and bishops do following papal audiences (which are quite fun to attend).
 
it’s common to bow… a sign of respect of the office to kiss the ring… 👍
 
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mrS4ntA:
Big toe? :eek: where did she get that info from?

I believe there was an unpleasant incident with the Melkite Patriarch at the Coronation of Pius IX. Whether true or not, it is said that when the Patriarch came forward to kiss the Pontiff’s foot, Pius stepped on his head.
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Keith Cobb:
My Protestant sister-in-law thinks that Catholics commonly kiss the big toe of their pope as a sign of respect and loyalty. Where would I find the truth of this matter? What is the protocol for showing respect to the Pope in person?
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Wow - that’s a new one! 😃 Who takes off his shoe? I imagine with all the visits he gets he must not wear them!!! :rolleyes:

As for the kissing of the ring, which is really a sign for the respect of the office rather than to the individual, women also wear mantillas, the lace headcoverings women frequently wore before Vatican II.
 
It is possible, if kissing a pope’s foot was ever practiced, it was based on Sacred Scripture:

St. Paul praised the Galatians for the respect they showed him, saying, “and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.” (Gal 4:14)

And, how did the woman at the Pharisee’s house receive Christ Jesus? “And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.” (Luke 7:37-38)

As St. Paul says elsewhere, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!” (Rom 10:13-15)
 
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