>To expand Bill's comment just a bit. The common form of greeting any bishop
>prior to Vatican II was to kneel, kiss the bishop's ring, and ask for his
>blessing. Not very different than the description of Arnaud. FWIW, it is
>still the 'official' protocol for greeting one's Ordinary. In practice,
>however, the handshake has replaced the older custom almost everywhere since
>Vatican II, for one's own Ordinary as well as other prelates. The former
>custom is now not commonly used other than when RCs greet the Pope.
Although when Archbishop Ramsey (ex- of Canterbury) visited my college
chapel in the late 1970s, an especially High member of the congregation
caused some scandal among the less ritualistically inclined by doing
precisely as described above - not only a medieval but a Catholic survival
in what was then a rather Broad Anglican community :-)
Steven Botterill
Associate Professor of Italian Literature
Acting Chair, Department of Italian Studies
Acting Chair, Italian/Slavic/Scandinavian Administrative Cluster
Department of Italian Studies
6303 Dwinelle Hall #2620
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-2620
(510) 642-6246 (voice)
(510) 642-9884 (FAX)
http://ls.berkeley.edu/dept/italian/botterill.htm
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