MANILA (RVA News): Following its July 8 to 10 plenary assembly in Kalibo, Aklan, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines [CBCP] said that the faithful may hold or raise hands while singing or reciting the Lord’s Prayer during the Mass.
On July 14, Archbishop Victor Bendico of Capiz, chairperson of the Episcopal Commission on Liturgy, said that the General Instruction of the Roman Missal [GIRM] “neither forbids nor prescribes raising hands or holding hands” during this particular part of the Mass.
“Both gestures are liturgically accepted to accompany the praying of the Lord’s Prayer,” said Bishop Bendico in his circular. “We are therefore exhorted to exercise sincere respect to each other in the gesture we express during the prayer.”
This came after Bishop Julito Cortes of Dumaguete in the central Philippines, decreed on June 16 that people should not raise or hold hands while reciting the “Lord’s Prayer” during Mass. He encouraged that people instead “join his or her own hands… while the priest extends his hands in prayer,” according to CBCP News.
Bishop Cortes was seeking to address “confusions” concerning the proper hand posture. “This will ensure clarity and uniformity of hand gesture among the faithful participating in the Holy Mass,” he said.
A few days later, Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu, chimed in stressing the need for a common stance, particularly regarding hand gestures when reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
Both gestures are liturgically accepted to accompany the praying of the Lord’s Prayer. We are therefore exhorted to exercise sincere respect to each other in the gesture we express during the prayer
Archbishop Benedico
However, in its July 14 the CBCP said that while the Roman Liturgy in the past considered Our Father a presidential prayer, the reforms of the Second Vatican Council transformed it into a prayer for the entire assembly.
“Since GIRM is silent on the gesture that should accompany the prayer, the faithful can recite or sing it with a gesture that can best help them to experience and express themselves as God’s children,” Bishop Bendico wrote.
The bishop also cited the liturgical instruction from the Italian translation of the Roman Missal, stating that the faithful way is to hold one’s arms outstretched, provided that the gesture is “properly explained” and “is to take place with dignity in a fraternal atmosphere of prayer.”
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Bishop Bendico also shared the scriptural basis for this decision, explaining how Moses prayed with outstretched hands in Exodus 17:8–16. He also noted that Solomon did the same in 1 Kings 8:54, and cite St. Paul’s instructions to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:8.
“It is not proper to prohibit the raising of hands in praying the Lord’s Prayer, and equally, it is not proper to demand from the faithful to raise their hands in this part of the Mass,” said Jose Cardinal Advincula of Manila, in his own circular.
“The faithful are to be respected with the decision they make on this matter,” the cardinal said.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, said in a pastoral letter on July 15, “For some of the faithful, it is in raising their hands in an orans posture that they can express the filial love and reverence contained in the prayer. Let us allow them. Church rules allow them.”
Archbishop Villegas said that the greater concern should be over human hands used in evil designs: spreading lies to demonise the good and glorify the bad, plundering the taxes of the people, and dragging children and women to prostitution.
“We should be more concerned about the cowardly silence of our lips and the cold hardness of our hearts as we see hands pulling the trigger of guns and killing their brothers and sisters,” he said.
