Why can Catholics eat pork?

Ask an Apologist
#1

Hi:
I hope you don’t mind this silly question. I am a cradle Catholic (albeit post-Vatican II and therefore I had to undergo the silliness of “CCD”, which we called “Cut-Color-and-Draw” for all the religious education we got. :slight_smile: )
I do consider myself a faithful Catholic who has been growing ever stronger in the faith, especially over the past several years.
Be that as it may:

Why is it that Catholics and other Christians can eat pork, when it is forbidden in the Old Testament? Does that hold true for all the other regulations in the Old Testament, and if so, why?

Thanks in advance for answering something I’ve never quite understood but have wanted to.
God bless you and yours,

#2

The Old Law was fulfilled by Jesus. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) explains, “The Law has not been abolished, but rather man is invited to rediscover it in the person of his Master who is its perfect fulfillment.” (CCC 2053).

For example, rediscovery of the dietary law (including eating pork), is explained: “Jesus perfects the dietary law, so important in Jewish daily life, by revealing its pedagogical meaning through a divine interpretation: ‘Whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him . . .’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts. . . ." (CCC 582)