Dispensation from Friday penance day after Thanksgiving?

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mrsdizzyd said:
No, I mean it’s pretty pathetic that parishes and KofC chapters can’t use Fridays as a teachable moment to offer only non-meat meals, and end up doing nothing but reinforcing the misconception that “we can eat meat on Fridays now and that’s all there is to it”. Or have the events on some other day.
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I don’t think it’s some kind of nefarious, as you put it, attempt to denature the concept of Friday abstinence and deliberately reinforce a common error. It very well may be part of the American “TGIF” mentality, as well as the fact that seafood is harder to cook, than hot dogs and hamburgers which require only minimal cooking on a grill. Fried fish is delicious, but hard to cook in a kitchen, it smells up the place where it’s cooked, and it is very labor-intensive.
DIERM said:
Yes, and that’s pretty pathetic. No wonder people think it’s simply a case of “we can eat meat on Fridays now”.
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Once again — I have no dilemma. I am just pointing out the fact that if there is no dispensation in place, the ordinary Friday obligation remains, and in the United States, we have a choice of either abstinence from flesh meat, or an alternative practice of our choosing.
PetraG said:
Not that people can’t do both, mind you. It is reasonable to try to teach that the penitential nature of Fridays outside of Lent hasn’t disappeared, you are right about that. The misconception is very widespread.
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Many if not most Catholics in the US are not even remotely conscious that there is a Friday penitential obligation outside of Lent. They are just not told, or if it is only brought up on a rare occasion, it either “goes in one ear and out the other” or is ignored in good faith, people reasoning “that’s not what I heard, I heard that we can eat meat on Fridays”. I don’t think you have that many people running around saying “I understand the Church’s discipline, but that’s stupid, I’m not going to do anything, and I’m going to eat meat just like everyone else does”. They just don’t know, they haven’t a clue.
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hoping4more said:
I am considering giving up meat(really difficult socially), coffee(difficult after eating and watching kids) chocolate and deserts(likely to offend one of my sisters or wife).

Any other ideas for OP and myself?
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I’m not the one to recommend penances for others, especially if I don’t know them, but I have to think that any alternative penance should be at least as arduous as abstaining from meat. On the other hand, I don’t think it needs to be “over the top”. Some people cannot do without coffee or nicotine without suffering fairly serious withdrawal symptoms — headache, nervousness, bad digestion, and so on. A penance like that is what I call “over the top”. In all honesty, having to avoid meat on Fridays is more of a penitential “aggravation” than anything else — “can’t eat this, can’t eat that” — and in our culture, it can also cause problems with other people. People in my part of the US just absolutely cannot fathom the concept of penitential abstinence from a certain food. You will even have some people with Lenten liturgical traditions (Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, et al) who gorge themselves on meat, even on Good Friday, and see no contradiction whatsoever.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
Many if not most Catholics in the US are not even remotely conscious that there is a Friday penitential obligation outside of Lent. They are just not told, or if it is only brought up on a rare occasion, it either “goes in one ear and out the other” or is ignored in good faith, people reasoning “that’s not what I heard, I heard that we can eat meat on Fridays”. I don’t think you have that many people running around saying “I understand the Church’s discipline, but that’s stupid, I’m not going to do anything, and I’m going to eat meat just like everyone else does” . They just don’t know, they haven’t a clue.
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This is to say that many of us are missing a bet, you know? Even among those who have remotely sort of maybe heard something about that, there are those who know about it like they know their employer offers a 401-k with a matching contribution by the employer: that is, they see what they have to give up but they don’t have a clue what is gained by having both a “Little Lent” and a “Little Easter” on a weekly basis. They short themselves by not participating.

There was a time in my life when I didn’t go to Mass every Sunday. I knew I ought to, but sometimes I “gave myself” a dispensation. My husband, who is not Catholic, prefered being around me when I went to Sunday Mass, though. He told me often: “You don’t do well when you don’t go to Mass.” I wasn’t just committing a sin. I was missing a bet…God’s laws are sweet, and they are meant for our good.
 
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In my community every Friday is penance except Feast days.

Sundays are always Feast days in that there are no restrictions as there are other week days.
 
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The Bishops in the UK have reinstated the rule of abstaining from meat on Fridays as they felt that very few people were performing an alternative penance. In my experience at least, it appears to have fallen on deaf ears as very few people actually observe the Friday abstinence . To be honest I can’t get my head around it. How can something be sinful in one part of the world and not sinful in another part of the world. Surely God’s law and his Church is universal.
 
How can driving on the left-hand side of the road be showing obedience to lawful authorities in UK but in the USA shows disobedience to lawful authorities?
 
Titivillus said:
How can driving on the left-hand side of the road be showing obedience to lawful authorities in UK but in the USA shows dis obedience to lawful authorities?
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I don’t think that this is the same thing though. The laws of the UK and the US are separate, they are not one combined entity, so there will be differences between the two. In any case there is a crime in each country for driving on the wrong side of the road whatever side that may be. The Church is universal world wide however so its laws should be universal too. How can God be offended by someone in the UK eating meat on a Friday and then performing an alternative penance, but not be offended by someone in the US doing the same thing?
 
To be honest, whenever I am in the UK I have a hard time finding a place to eat where meat is actually being sold (Unless it is a very pricey restaurant maybe, which I usually don’t want to eat in or pay for). Perhaps I just happen to end up in places frequented by huge numbers of vegetarians and vegans, but I actually do have some difficulty, and I notice these things because I have to watch my iron level and take supplements if I’m going to be going days with no meat.

Setting that aside, the Vatican has permitted the bishops for each country to set the abstinence rule in the manner they think is best for the particular country.

We don’t do the penance so God “won’t be offended”, we do it as a visible sign of our faith and to make ourselves better people.
 
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PhilJ said:
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Titivillus:
How can driving on the left-hand side of the road be showing obedience to lawful authorities in UK but in the USA shows dis obedience to lawful authorities?
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I don’t think that this is the same thing though. The laws of the UK and the US are separate, they are not one combined entity, so there will be differences between the two. In any case there is a crime in each country for driving on the wrong side of the road whatever side that may be. The Church is universal world wide however so its laws should be universal too. How can God be offended by someone in the UK eating meat on a Friday and then performing an alternative penance, but not be offended by someone in the US doing the same thing?
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Is it a criminal act to drive on one side of the road rather than the other?

Or is the morality of some acts linked with the obedience or disobedience to legitimate authorities? (One might just as well ask “How can something be sinful on one day of the week and not sinful on another day?”)

The Church is universal, but bishops exercise legitimate authority in their several territories.
 
I give up this forum and all phone games on Fridays. I try to give up meat on Fridays, too, but if meat happens I’m covered.
TBF, having turkey a second day is somewhat penitential for me anyway.🙂
 
HomeschoolDad said:
I am just pointing out the fact that if there is no dispensation in place, the ordinary Friday obligation remains, and in the United States, we have a choice of either abstinence from flesh meat, or an alternative practice of our choosing.
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Then there is no issue here…not sure what you are looking for.
 
I had no idea of any Friday penitential obligation. I don’t remember it being mentioned in RCIA when I attended a few years ago, and RCIA teaching was very thorough. Is the idea of a current Friday penitential obligation a traditional teaching that is no longer observed by the majority of U.S. Catholics?
 
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Ean_Fanaiochta said:
Is the idea of a current Friday penitential obligation a traditional teaching that is no longer observed by the majority of U.S. Catholics?
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It’s a teaching from 1966 that is still in force in USA. Please read all about it on the US Bishops’ own website here. (“Christ Died for Our Sins on Friday” is the section pertaining to Fridays generally.)

http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-wor...toral-statement-on-penance-and-abstinence.cfm

Most Catholics catechized during the last 50 years missed the part where they were supposed to substitute another Friday penance if they chose to eat meat on Friday. This was never taught to me in Catholic school, or by my generally well-informed and observant mom, and I am sure RCIA classes are not covering it very well either. I have also never heard it mentioned by a priest, either from the pulpit or otherwise. The first time I found out about it was reading some thread on this site a few years ago which led me to read the USCCB site and now I just skip eating meat on Friday (unless it’s a solemnity). It’s easier than trying to figure out an alternative penance. It also is penitential because at the very least I have to find something else to eat, meat being “commonplace”.
 
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PetraG said:
My husband, who is not Catholic, prefered being around me when I went to Sunday Mass, though. He told me often: “You don’t do well when you don’t go to Mass.” I wasn’t just committing a sin. I was missing a bet…God’s laws are sweet, and they are meant for our good.
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He’s a very perceptive man imo. Maybe God is leading him to the Church. 🙏
 
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