I'm meeting with my Bishop tomorrow

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hamburglar

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I am meeting the Bishop tomorrow. This is an informal meeting.

I am nervous about greeting the Bishop, in particular, kissing the Sacred Ring. I know some people discourage this, but I feel it is appropriate, and I wish to do it.

I know I genuflect on my left knee to kiss his ring, but should I ask him first or just do it when I meet him? If it would be best to ask “permission” how should I phrase it.

Also, I have heard some people say you should address the Bishop face-to-face as “Your Excellency” and others recommend addressing him as “Bishop.” People seem to agree that an Archbishop should be addressed as “Your Excellency” or “Your Grace” but there seems to be differing opinions regarding regular Bishops.
 
I don’t know the answers to your questions, but this is what I would do:

Greet your Bishop and express your respect to him and the office he holds. Explain that you do not know the customs associated with greeting or addressing a bishop and I am sure he will understand and explain the general rules regarding this. Don’t worry. The Bishop is a man of God and will be humble. He will not be offended. He will teach you, not reproach you.
 
When I met with my own bishop, it wasn’t all that difficult or awkward as I had imagined. I considered the left knee genuflect kiss, but decided against it considering he was a bit liberal and wouldn’t really “get it”. instead, when it came my turn to greet him, I simply said “your excellency, it’s wonderful to meet you.” When i shook his hand I bowed my torso in a semi profound bow and kissed the ring. (i think the bow alerted the bishop that I was going to kiss his ring and he offered his hand in a way that made it easy to do so."

Good luck!
 
I don’t think any priest or bishop is ever offended by being called “father”. After all, where does “Pope” come from.

God Bless
 
bilop said:
I don’t think any priest or bishop is ever offended by being called “father”. After all, where does “Pope” come from.

God Bless
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Youe excellency is easy enough to say at first greeting. Sir works fine from that point on. Calling him by his first name doesn’t work well, unless he is your brother.
 
RobbyS said:
Youe excellency is easy enough to say at first greeting. Sir works fine from that point on. Calling him by his first name doesn’t work well, unless he is your brother.
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I’m just saying if the OP slipped and called him father, I don’t think the bishop would be mad.

God Bless
 
Probably not too big of a deal depending on the type of guy he is. I was making copies of music in the office for a Confirmation mass, and all of a sudden I looked up over the copier lid and there was our archbishop right in front of me. So naturally, I half-jumped, but the first thing that came from my mouth was “Abbot Jerome!” He looked a little surprised, like “Nobody has called me that in years, why would you know that?”

It’s all good. He wasn’t upset at all. Just kind of stunned 😉
 
FWIW, at the first meeting I would greet a Latin Rite bishop formally in the traditional manner, i.e., bending the left knee and kissing his ring, and address him as “Your Excellency” (or simply “Excellency”). If he “doesn’t get it” that’s kind of his problem. And If he prefers a different form of address or greeting, don’t worry, he’ll let you know. Once you’ve met, you can determine if you prefer to follow his wishes or maintain the traditional form. Some might considered the “old way” a little “stuffy,” but there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s proper, formal, and respectful.
 
Every time I meet our bishop, which I do fairly often, I just shake his hand and say “Hi Bishop.” To which is responds “Hi” back and asks how I am doing. The only time I ever saw anyone genuflect and kiss his ring was when a group of semi-cloistered Polish nuns came to an ordination Mass.
 
It sounds as though you’re putting alot of good effort into your meeting - particularly the left knee genuflection…I always genuflect on my right, so I’d make a really big error there !

Very shortly after Archbishop Terrence O’Connor was installed as Cardinal of New York, I unexpectedly saw him about to get into a car in a parking garage near St. Patrick’s. There had been considerable excitement over this new Cardinal’s personality, and I was apparently swept up by it. Rushing into the garage, (and with no disrespect intended), I took his hand with childlike excitement, and shook it, as I addressed him, saying, “Welcome to New York!” To this day, I can’t remember if I asked to kiss his ring. (so unlike me ordinarily). :o I may have but I blanked out. But I do remember his smile at that moment.

I’m guessing that Bishops must experience numerous ways of being addressed. And I’ll gather they probably are entertained a bit by an individual’s efforts to be their best.
 
One needs to remember that, although they hold high positions in the church, they are people and like to be treated sometimes, not in a showy way. I remember going to a conference at our seminary given by a cardinal. The seminarians were fawing all over him. At lunch time he completely avoided them and came to sit at our table, even asking if it was allright if he do so. He was delightful. He walked around the table asking our names and shaking our hands…he offering his hand first. We were talking about hockey - he was from Canada - and he was asking us all about what we do in our parishes and we were disussing all sorts of things. We all addressed him as simply “Cardinal” and he seemed fine with that.
 
Our Archbishop is fantastic and a great people person and is very humble and honoured by the city he serves.

Our nickname for him - one he loves - is SuperMario
(his name is AB Mario Conti)

Since my brother in law is an alter server for 17yrs this year he has helpd at the alter in the cathedral a few times - he is kindly called SuperMario by us and even jokes about it.

I was wondering about this greeting the archbishop during the rite of election at the end of the month - as long as i dont slip up and call him supermario lol
 
When I met our bishop (well, for the first time in my adult life) I was worried about whether he would “get it” - he’s not particularly liberal but I figured could probably go either way on protocol that is in almost universal disuse. So I first asked him if I could kiss his ring - it wasn’t awkward at all to ask, and he was fine with it, so all worked out well.
 
So I am leaving to go see him in an hour and fifteen minutes. Something about asking the Bishop if I can kiss his ring seems odd to me. But, if I don’t ask what if I drop to my left knee and go in for the kiss, and he doesn’t expect it?
 
hamburglar said:
So I am leaving to go see him in an hour and fifteen minutes. Something about asking the Bishop if I can kiss his ring seems odd to me. But, if I don’t ask what if I drop to my left knee and go in for the kiss, and he doesn’t expect it?
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If he doesn’t “get” the left knee thing, he’ll just motion (or tell) you to rise. No big deal. Good luck. Let us know how it went.
 
It’s not a big deal. When he gives you his hand, just fall on your left knee and kiss his ring. There’s no need to ask permission.

Don’t be all showy about it; just do it quickly and move on.
 
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