Is this an American thing?

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In this video greeting each other before Mass is mentioned. Isn’t that something you do after Mass when you have church coffe (or what you call it in English). In Sweden socializing is something you often do after Mass.
 
I don’t see a link for the video (probably you will have added it by the time I post this.)

At my parish they do invite you to turn and greet the people near you right before mass begins. It is not an across the board American thing, but our parish started doing it a few years ago. We have about 10,000 families (nearby parishes are similar in size). The thinking was that it’s easy to get lost in a crowd like that and not know anyone. People who come to mass for the first time from some other Christian backgrounds may not feel the fellowship they are accustomed to, so we can atleast do this. Most American parishes I have been to do not do this.
 
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Our parish also invites us to great the people near you so people do not feel like strangers prior to mass beginning. I think it is a great practice. It allows you to feel like a part of the community.
 
Sometimes I wondered if it was so that the sign of peace wouldn’t get out of control with people enthusiastically heading to other sections, but that’s not the main reason.
 
At our Parish we do that in the Vestibule before Mass begins.
 
Some people are sociable and some people are not. If people want to greet each other prior to the start of Mass or to stick around to great people after Mass, they have that option.
I come to Mass to praise and give Gloria to God through prayer and song, not so much to say hello to other folks who are there at Church.
 
Some parishes invite you to “turn and greet your neighbor” before Mass begins. All you do is turn to the person next to you and say “Good morning” or “Hello” with a smile. That’s it. It’s not a big social hour.

Many parishes have a hospitality time after Mass on Sunday, or after particular Masses (so if you want to socialize after, you go to that Mass), or they do it on certain Sundays of the month if they can’t do it every week. That is for spending more time socializing and talking with people. In USA it’s often called “coffee and donuts” because that’s often what people have for a snack.
 
It’s not “new”, it’s been going on since the 1970s.

It’s also not “big”. Some parishes do it, some don’t. The parish does it if a pastor institutes it and they get used to doing it.

It’s probably not “growing”. It takes all of 15 seconds and is no more exciting or interesting than if you just happened to nod and smile at people around you as you were getting into your pew.
 
Or waffles after church? They mentioned the waffles on family guy anyway.
 
When I was in Rome some years ago I attended Mass in English. Maybe a Church used by Canadians. Anyway, the Priest said Good morning at Mass. So weird. Are you even allowed to do this at Mass? Going to Mass is sometimes too social. People even talk in Church when Mass is ended. It should never be allowed.
I rather have a quite.time after a long Mass
 
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I don’t watch very much Family Guy but I understand they have a recurring joke about waffles, so they probably just were making another occurrence of that joke.

Catholic churches in USA usually don’t offer cooked food like waffles. Usually cooked food is only offered at benefit events like Knights of Columbus breakfasts or spaghetti dinners, and you’re expected to pay for a meal at those events. Many Catholic churches don’t have their own kitchen so they would have to get a restaurant to prepare and deliver the cooked food. If they do have a kitchen they would need people to volunteer to cook and clean up and that would be difficult to get for every week, or even every month.

Typical Catholic hospitality events just involve people ordering a bunch of donuts from the nearest Catholic bakery (or if no Catholic bakery they just go wherever they can), maybe making coffee or alternatively buying a big shareable container of coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts, and setting it out on a table with paper plates for people to have a snack.

I know Family Guy has had some episodes on Catholicism, but from what I’ve read their episodes are inaccurate and blasphemous (I wouldn’t want to sit through them) so I don’t think the people writing the show actually have a clue about the faith or what Catholics actually do.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
Catholic churches in USA usually don’t offer cooked food like waffles. Usually cooked food is only offered at benefit events like Knights of Columbus breakfasts or spaghetti dinners, and you’re expected to pay for a meal at those events.
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Agree. A plate of food is not an every week thing. Usually it is a fundraiser done for one of the ministries like the youth group or a cultural group.
 
jesusmademe said:
Anyway, the Priest said Good morning at Mass. So weird. Are you even allowed to do this at Mass?
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I thought that was an actual part of mass because it is done every time. He says Good Morning and we say Good Morning, Father. It’s after the entrance hymn and before mass begins with the sign of the cross. Maybe you’re right. Maybe it isn’t in the rubrics.
 
It’s not uncommon for priests to say “Good Morning” or “Good Afternoon” before they start the Mass with the sign of the cross. Also, after the “Mass is Ended, Thanks Be to God” conclusion, many of them will say something like, “Thank you all for coming, have a nice day” and people will respond with “You too Father” or “Thank you Father”.

Since these things happen outside of the Mass start/ end window, it’s not a problem.
 
Our pp always welcomes visitors coming to see family or stopping for mass on the way through to somewhere else .
It is nice to feel friendship nodding hellos before mass begins as we are about to take part in mass together.I think it helps also as you can be more aware to pray for one another .
 
Wow, really? Why say Good morning in church? To me it sounds “stupid” but then I am no American.
 
I have no idea why you would find it “stupid” for people to be friendly to each other and to the priest. People are worshipping together for an hour - it might be nice if they said “Good morning” or wished each other well. One might say “Good morning” when you enter a business meeting, and Mass is just a meeting of a different sort, for worship.

I will try to put this in a kind way, but for you to say that saying “good morning” sounds “stupid” sounds a bit rude, and like maybe you have trouble interacting with people socially. I am speaking from a US perspective where like I said people say “good morning” regularly, but I don’t think it’s just a US thing as I work for a European company and have many meetings with people from Germany, Europe etc and it’s quite normal for people to often be saying Good morning or Guten morgen or whatever when they enter a meeting, even if they are from Europe, not USA.

I would suggest that you try to be less judgmental about these relatively minor practices. It seems from all of your threads that you say negative things about many practices, prayers, wordings etc that many Catholics take for granted as being a normal thing. You may want to do some reflection on why you have these reactions instead of just feeling neutral about it.
 
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When I get to a new parish I tell them to do this outside of church so others can pray before and after mass. Often times trendy things creep into parishes like holding hands during the Our Father, Blessing of Children, after Mass, and blessing of people not receiving communion in the communion line. This done in the US because of its influence from other faiths. My Sacraments Professor called this “fluff- the cutsie things padres think they should do, but are not part of the Mass.”
 
Gabika50 said:
When I get to a new parish I tell them to do this outside of church so others can pray before and after mass.
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Then I hope for your sake you don’t move to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Baltimore, or New York in USA, or the Diocese of Cleveland in USA or really any other diocese in USA, because unless you are attending a strict traditionalist parish, you will not only be rather unpopular, but somebody is likely to report you to the pastor.
 
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