Kissing the hands that are contaminated with the blood of the country’s youth

In the Catholic Church, a Catholic meeting the Pope or a Cardinal, or even a lower-ranking prelate, will kiss the ring on his hand. This has become uncommon in circles not used to formal protocol, even often dispensed with amongst clergy. Sometimes, the devout Catholic combines the hand kissing with kneeling on the left knee as an even stronger expression of filial respect for the clerically high-ranking father. The cleric may then in a fatherly way lay his other hand on the kisser’s head or even bless him/her by a manual cross sign. In the Catholic Church, it is also traditional for the laity to kiss the hands of a newly-ordained priest after his inaugural mass, in veneration of the Body of Christ, which is held in the priest’s hands during the Holy Eucharist. In May 2014, Pope Francis kissed the hands of six Holocaust survivors to honour the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

January 22, 2023 | 1:07 am