Can I eat meat on a Friday solemnity in Lent?

[Nate500]

Hello today is Friday, February 22 2013 and its a feast day of the Chair of Saint Peter and this feast day so happens to be during Lent. One of my friends said this today:

“We don’t eat meat on Fridays, but since this Friday (today) falls on a solemnity (the highest kind of feast day there is), we can “celebrate” and eat meat today. We can also do/eat stuff we have decided to give up for lent.”

Is this true? Can we really eat meat and do things we have given up for Lent because it is a feast day? I have tried researching this but found nothing so far .

thank you

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Canon 1251: “Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

If a solemnity falls on a Friday of Lent the penance of abstinence is not in effect. However, in the USA, the Chair of St. Peter is a feast day, not a solemnity. Abstinence is still observed today.

It may be a solemnity in certain religious orders, personal prelates, or other countries but you must be a member of them for the solemnity exceptions to apply to you.