Forgive me for putting in my ten cents worth but I understand nobody is “forced” to hold hands. They do not have to if they do not want to and I really find it hard to believe these stories of physical abuse on folks who decline to hold hands.
Whether holding hands is an abuse or unwarranted innovation I don’t know because at 57 years old I have been a Catholic for the past 14 years so in all churches in the many countries I have been to Mass either holding hands or hands outstretched turned upwards are the only gestures I have seen. It seems to me, though, that if such a thing was an abuse or unwarranted innovation surely this globally practiced and obviously well known gesture to the hierachy of the Church would have been stopped by now. How many Popes and Councils of Bishops have there been in the past 30 to 40 years. I don’t think the argument that they have had no time to address this due to more important matters really holds (not over a 30 year time period anyhow).
