Can Catholics eat in restaurants on Fridays?

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I know we cant eat meat on Friday, but can we eat in restaurants on Friday? because eating at a restaurant could be a kind of a ‘‘celeration’’.

Also, can we eat eggs and milk on Fridays?

Thank you
 
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Actually, in general Catholics can eat meat on most Fridays. Fridays during Lent and Good Friday are the exceptions. The requirements may be different depending on where you live.

Catholics, even those who abstain from meat on Fridays year round, may eat in restaurants on Fridays. There is no requirement to avoid celebrations on Fridays, though it is generally encouraged to do so on Good Friday.

There is no requirement ever to abstain from eggs or milk in the Western Church. In the Eastern Catholic churches, there are periods of obligatory abstinence from eggs and dairy products including but not limited to milk. I hope one or more of our Eastern Catholic brothers and sisters will elaborate, as this is not an area in which I’m very knowledgeable.

God bless.
 
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Plant your tongue firmly in your cheek and you will understand. 😉
 
Benjinho said:
I thought no meat on Fridays was only for lent??
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Fridays: “We do so in the hope that the Catholic community will ordinarily continue to abstain from meat by free choice as formerly we did in obedience to Church law.” also note that there is a “need for self-discipline in the use of stimulants and a renewed emphasis on the virtue of temperance, especially in the use of alcoholic beverages.”
A Statement Issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops November 18, 1966

Vigils and Ember Days
17 … We impose no fast before any feast-day, but we suggest that the devout will find greater Christian joy in the feasts of the liturgical calendar if they freely bind themselves, for their own motives and in their own spirit of piety, to prepare for each Church festival by a day of particular self-denial, penitential prayer and fasting.

Christ Died for Our Salvation on Friday
23 Friday should be in each week something of what Lent is in the entire year. For this reason we urge all to prepare for that weekly Easter that comes with each Sunday by freely making of every Friday a day of self-denial and mortification in prayerful remembrance of the passion of Jesus Christ.

24 Among the works of voluntary self-denial and personal penance which we especially commend to our people for the future observance of Friday, even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat. We do so in the hope that the Catholic community will ordinarily continue to abstain from meat by free choice as formerly we did in obedience to Church law. …

25 Every Catholic Christian understands that the fast and abstinence regulations admit of change, unlike the commandments and precepts of that unchanging divine moral law which the Church must today and always defend as immutable. This said, we emphasize that our people are henceforth free from the obligation traditionally binding under pain of sin in what pertains to Friday abstinence, except as noted above for Lent. We stress this so that “no” scrupulosity will enter into examinations of conscience,confessions, or personal decisions on this point.

26 Perhaps we should warn those who decide to keep the Friday abstinence for reasons of personal piety and special love that they must not pass judgment on those who elect to substitute other penitential observances. Friday, please God, will acquire among us other forms of penitential witness which may become as much a part of the devout way of life in the future as Friday abstinence from meat. In this connection we have foremost in mind the modern need for self-discipline in the use of stimulants and for a renewed emphasis on the virtue of temperance, especially in the use of alcoholic beverages.
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http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-wor...toral-statement-on-penance-and-abstinence.cfm
 
HSTV said:
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bobperk:
When Jesus found his disciples at table on the day before the Sabbath, he rebuked them, saying,
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is it really in the Bible?
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No it isn’t. Flagged it.
 
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No. They were joking.

It depends on what country you live in.
In the US we must do a penance every Friday, of course, but that does not mean necessarily abstaining from meat. In the US we get to pick and choose what our Friday penance will be.

And yes, no matter where you live it’s a-okay to eat out on Friday.
 
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Nigel7 said:
No. They were joking.

It depends on what country you live in.
In the US we must do a penance every Friday, of course, but that does not mean necessarily abstaining from meat. In the US we get to pick and choose what our Friday penance will be.

And yes, no matter where you live it’s a-okay to eat out on Friday.
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Many Catholics I know are under the impression that the prohibition on eating meat on Friday went away years ago. Including a priest who I confessed to where I mistakenly had meat without a penential substitute…
 
It can vary by country. In Canada we have the following directive:

For Friday to come alive once more as a day of penance and good works, it must be kept in our homes. Parents and children, adults living alone, students and teachers, clergy and religious: all of us are invited to listen to Jesus’ invitation to carry the cross and to do penance for the good of the Church and the world.

Acts of penance: We can do at least one of these good actions each Friday:
  • Penance . Abstain from meat, or some other form of food, drink or entertainment.
  • Prayer. Take part in a service of worship with others, or pray with our family, or spend some extra time in personal prayer.
  • Good works. Do good to others by visiting the sick or aged, helping those in any need, or by contributing time or money to a work of charity.
Each of the three choices are valid.
 
HSTV said:
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steph03:
it must be kept in our homes.
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then we should not eat in restaurants on Friday?
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You missed the point. Where do you see not eating in a restaurant in my message? You could instead just say a rosary or a chaplet, help the poor, abstain from beer or alcool, etc. etc. The idea is to pick one of the valid choices and stick to it.
 
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