Naysayers like me find the practice unhygienic (the kiddies who just coughed your next illness into their hands are the most enthusiastic hand-holders), awkward (do you jump the aisle, just hold your hand toward the person sitting in the pew across the aisle, or what?), and contrived (Midwesterners are not demonstrative people, mostly opting for the single-pump handshake on rare occasions when public affection is required).So far the Comments mostly share her dislike, though less emphatically than Archbishop Weakland.
Others want to know why they can't kneel to take communion. No, it's not in the rubrics, but neither is hand-holding, which has never been in the rubrics. More evidence that the happy clappies are taking over the Church.
We're still holding hands at St. Al's. If hand-holding shows the parish is a family, as we're told, the absence of almost 6,500 parishioners tells us something about what kind of family.
I'd not hold hands and say it's because I was already holding the hand of one of the parishioners not present.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason to militate against the practice, is on the level of liturgical symbolism. The practice of holding hands eclipses the true sign of unity, which is in the sharing of the Body and Blood of Christ.
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