# reverend



## yannalan

How dou you salute your catholic parish priest when you meet him on the street ?


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## linguos

Czcigodny Ojcze? Wielebny Ojcze?

I'm an atheist, so it's better to wait for people who know more about the Church hierarchy.


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## BezierCurve

Usually you say "Niech będzie pochwalony [Jezus Chrystus]" ("Let him [Jesus Christ] be praised"). That's a traditional catholic greeting.

A parish priest is "ksiądz proboszcz" ("księże proboszczu" in vocative).

Maybe wait for catholics to find out more.


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## linguos

Yes, I thought that a parish priest is "ksiądz proboszcz" and I also believed "Niech będzie pochwalony" to be the standard salutation, however I came across an entry in a dictionary translating "reverend" directly as "wielebny" and "czcigodny", and this confused me. 

7 years of having very little contact with the clergy made me forget most of what I had been forcefully taught when I was a very young kid.


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## NotNow

_Niech będzie pochwalony_ is used only by very pious people.  It's used more in rural areas than in urban areas.  It's a little old fashioned, I believe.

A priest is usually addressed by_ Pan_ + his first name or by_ Pan Ksiądz. _ I have also heard priests addressed by just _Ksiądz._


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## Teddy79

NotNow said:


> A priest is usually addressed by_ Pan_ + his first name or by_ Pan Ksiądz. _ I have also heard priests addressed by just _Ksiądz._



Actually, addressing a priest by _Pan_ would be considered quite rude.
The most common form of adderessing a priest is "proszę księdza"
or simply "ksiądz" as in "Czy mógłby mi ksiądz powiedzieć ... ?"

I would again like to advise against addressing priests by _Pan_; many of them
will take offence at being addressed in such way.


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## majlo

I use the very word "pan" to address them. "Proszę pana" is the most common one for me.


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## arturolczykowski

I addressed a priest by "Prosze pana" once and he was very cross with me. I think the safest way to address them is by referring to their "profession" : "Prosze księdza"........


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## Ben Jamin

BezierCurve said:


> Usually you say "Niech będzie pochwalony [Jezus Chrystus]" ("Let him [Jesus Christ] be praised"). That's a traditional catholic greeting.


 One should discern between salutation (greeting) and address.
This is a salutation.



BezierCurve said:


> A parish priest is "ksiądz proboszcz" ("księże proboszczu" in vocative).
> 
> Maybe wait for catholics to find out more.


This is an address.

The usual way of addressing a priest in Polish is "proszę księdza"


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## kknd

i know more informal way to address a priest−those suggested above ('dear mr./sir' or similar are somewhat disparaging to addressee and are used mainly by people not connected to any christian faith or atheists): when one wants to address a priest, he can use _księże_ (voc. of _ksiądz_); when he wants to salute him, he can use also _szczęść boże!_ ('god bless [you?]!')


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## ryba

Hello.

The most common ways of greeting a priest are _Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus!_ and _Szczęść Boże!_, which are considered standard. _Niech będzie pochwalony! _sounds more informal, possibly more rural; _Pochwalony!_ sounds even more informal/folk. The response the priest is going to give to _Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus!_ is _Na wieki wieków. Amen._ or simply _Na wieki wieków!_ (cf. Latin _Per sæcula sæculorum_). The answer to _Szczęść Boże!_ is usually either _Szczęść Boże!_ or _Bóg zapłać!_, or, particularly in the South of Poland, _Daj Boże!_ (in Podhale, even secular people often greet themselves saying _Scynść Boze_, the answer to which is _Dej Boze_! - in the Podhale dialect).

I strongly disadvise using secular forms of greeting such as _Dzień dobry_ or addressing a priest using _Pan_/_Pani_. That might be perceived as impolite or as a sign of ignorance, regardless of whether you are a member of the Catholic Church or not. The same goes for ordained or unordained monks and nuns.

Now, the title of the thread being "reverend", I wanted to remark that we use _wielebny_ mostly to address or refer to Protestant/Evangelical preachers/pastors, although the term may be used instead of _ksiądz_ in the Catholic context as well.


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## majlo

ryba said:


> I strongly disadvise using secular forms of greeting such as _Dzień dobry_ or addressing a priest using _Pan_/_Pani_. That might be perceived as impolite or as a sign of ignorance, regardless of whether you are a member of the Catholic Church or not.



Well, it may also mean that one doesn't recognize this title. I very much doubt that it's a sign of ignorance. This religion is so vastly widespread in our country that literally everyone knows of priests and ways of greeting them.


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## BezierCurve

Yep. In case of priests (whichever denomination) I usually choose the standard greetings ("dzień dobry" etc.) and don't get anyone (visibly) offended. If a priest insisted on being treated in a special way then THAT would be somehow ignorant (or impolite).


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## ryba

majlo said:


> Well, it may also mean that one doesn't recognize  this title.


Don't you think the term «impoliteness» englobes deliberately not recognizing someone's title? 

Let's not confuse Yannalan and let's not get off topic. Saying _Dzień dobry_ is always an option, but let's not pretend it's nice or educated to do so.



BezierCurve said:


> Yep. In case of priests (whichever denomination) I usually choose the standard greetings ("dzień dobry" etc.) and don't get anyone (visibly) offended. If a priest insisted on being treated in a special way then THAT would be somehow ignorant (or impolite).


Sure, it would be impolite, in most cases. I've witnessed a priest being treated just like a secular many times; they just calmly responded "Dzień dobry", etc.


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## majlo

ryba said:


> Don't you think the term «impoliteness» englobes deliberately not recognizing someone's title?


By no means. 



ryba said:


> Let's not confuse Yannalan and let's not get off topic. Saying _Dzień dobry_ is always an option, but let's not pretend it's nice or educated to do so.


Let's not pretend it's not nice, either. If I were a professor, and somebody deliberately neglected to remember about this while conversing with me, but was kind and warm-hearted otherwise, I would think he probably has his reasons to do so and would never ever call this person unkind; or uneducated for that matter.

By the way, what is Yannalan?


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## NotNow

Yannalan is the one who started this thread.


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