How to greet a Priest

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I have been gretting the priest in my parrish with a kiss on the check and hug as we are also good friends. Is this etiquette okay?
I see others do the same or kiss his hand.
 
kayla said:
I have been gretting the priest in my parrish with a kiss on the check and hug as we are also good friends. Is this etiquette okay?
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Where I live this is normal, where I come from there are no PDAs and I would not even greet my husband this way. 8 yrs and I still can’t get used to this degree of affection from casual aquaintances, but I am using hot sauce on my eggs
 
I guess what ever tradition is for your part of the world…

The least would be “Good Morning Father” (afternoon, evening, etc.) and shake his hand. or
“Good Morning Father” and give him a hug (If you and he are the hugging type)

Other gestures of affection will change from one geographic part of the world to another.
 
For my current pastor, a handshake and a smile.

For my former pastor, I might shake his hand after Mass, but there were also occassions where a hug was warranted, and it was not out of place. We still keep in touch and visit a few times during the year, and we greet each other with a warm hug. Kissing - even a kiss on the cheek - would seem awkward to me, but I have seen others greet him that way.

For what it’s worth, I’m in cajun country and the culture is pretty affectionate.
 
I usually greet any of our three priests… with a smile and “Good morning/afternoon/evening, Father”.

Our Pastor (who is a very fatherly man) occasionally initiates hugs with parishioners. And when he does, we receive the hugs with great joy. But I don’t feel it appropriate to initiate hugging, myself. I feel that we should exercise the greatest respect, when interacting with our priests.

Thank you for letting me add my :twocents: God bless.
 
It depends on the priest, the lay person/friend, and the relationship. I imagine some priests’ mothers wouldn’t even hug them in front of anyone. Other. priests offer hugs to any and everyone

I have a good personal friend who happens to be a Franciscan priest and everyone in a 50-foot radius of him gets an unforgettable hug every time. He and I have been known to troop down 31st Street in NYC with our arms draped over each others’ shoulders, laughing at our silliness, until we reach Broadway.

Those of you in NYC probably know who I’m talking about!
 
Some of this would depend if you are greeting a priest of the Latin Rite or one of Eastern Rites and what the particular cultural customs of the area are.
 
Seems odd that their isn’t a more standard form of greeting other than wishing them a Good Day. In Polish, there is a very uniform way of greeting a priest for example:

Szczęść Boże - God Bless (You)
Niech bedzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus - Praise be Jesus Christ
Z Bogiem - (Go) With God
 
As others have said, much depends on your locale and also your relationship with the priest. My former priest was a good friend, and I always gave him a hug…but I am a generation older than he and my hugs were the type he might receive from an aunt, not at all an occasion of temptation (I can see him shuddering at the very thought!). 😃 If he were closer to my own age, I would not have felt comfortable being so familiar with him. My current priest is a few years older than I, and while we are friends of a sort, he gets a handshake and I address him as Father Lastname, not Father Firstname. I am a hugger by nature, but he only gets a hug at Christmas and Easter. 😉 No priests get kisses from me; that’s too much familiarity for my taste.
 
JW55 said:
Some of this would depend if you are greeting a priest of the Latin Rite or one of Eastern Rites and what the particular cultural customs of the area are.
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I agree with this
 
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