Do you eat meat on Fridays?

  • Thread starter Thread starter GangGreen
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
_Gemma said:
Is this just Traditional Catholicism or is it recommended for all Catholics? I’m a new Catholic so all I learnt in RCIA was to fast from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

I have a friend who doesn’t eat meat Fridays but I didn’t realise other Catholics did during non-lent months.

Can anyone offer any advice or give me any links to information about this because I would like to start doing this?
Click to expand...
The universal norm in the Code of Canon Law is for fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and for abstinence from meat on every Friday.

However (and this is very important), local conferences of bishops can make modifications to this. For example, in the United States, the 1966 Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence is still in effect. This allows for the laity to choose an alternative form on Friday penance outside of Lent. But Catholics are still obligated to do penance of some sort.

According to this statement from Cardinal Pell, it looks like the situation is the same for you in Australia in that you may choose some other form of prayer or penance to fulfill this obligation.
 
I do not eat meat on any Friday of the year, but on rare occasions (out of town, on vacation) I have forgotten it was Friday and had meat. That has happened maybe twice in the past dozen years or so.

Also, one Friday I ordered an adult grilled cheese that was a four cheese sandwich with bacon and when I ordered, I asked that the bacon not be put on the sandwich. I was halfway through the first half of the sandwich when I began to taste bacon. I opened it to see a sprinkling of tiny pieces of bacon (they looked almost ground) on one side of the sandwich toward the crust. Apparently, my request to have the sandwich made sans bacon went unheeded. I stopped eating it immediately and had it wrapped to take home with me to finish the next day.
 
Seamus_L said:
Very rarely eat meat on Friday. I don’t say anything rude to people, but I admit I can get pretty disappointed with Catholics who put meat out for you on Friday.
Click to expand...
I was appalled when hubby’s siblings and their families were in town over Easter and 1) wanted to go out to dinner on Good Friday 2) to a BBQ chain. They were all cradle Catholics, though most are now fallen away, but they are very aware that we are still faithful Catholics and were hostile to opposition to that plan.
 
Anything that is a matter of preference, like no meat on Friday outside of Lent gives way to other considerations. It might be different if I lived alone and always cooked my own food.
 
I don’t eat meat on Fridays, except the rare occasions when I forget what day (night) is it. Never had a problem with abstaining from meat, though, so this can’t really count as “mortification”.
 
SwizzleStick said:
I was appalled when hubby’s siblings and their families were in town over Easter and 1) wanted to go out to dinner on Good Friday 2) to a BBQ chain. They were all cradle Catholics, though most are now fallen away, but they are very aware that we are still faithful Catholics and were hostile to opposition to that plan.
Click to expand...
Swizzle, I’ve found it is almost always possible in a chain to find something vegetarian, even if it is a plate of fries and a coke (gag). I’ve been dragged places like Portillo’s (really for hamburgers and hot dogs) and managed to find something else on the menu. It caused a scene when I did it, sigh. Exclamations about me and Catholic and all. I *hate *that. Bad food plus drawing attention to oneself. :eek:

I routinely avoid family during Lent and especially Holy Week. That way I don’t cause controversy and unhappiness.
 
Pug said:
Swizzle, I’ve found it is almost always possible in a chain to find something vegetarian, even if it is a plate of fries and a coke (gag). I’ve been dragged places like Portillo’s (really for hamburgers and hot dogs) and managed to find something else on the menu. It caused a scene when I did it, sigh. Exclamations about me and Catholic and all. I *hate *that. Bad food plus drawing attention to oneself. :eek:

I routinely avoid family during Lent and especially Holy Week. That way I don’t cause controversy and unhappiness.
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree, it is possible to find a meatless side, even at a BBQ place. It was the hostility toward and overt disregard for our Faith on Good Friday that was most troubling.

Avoiding family, or some branches of it anyway, during Holy Week might be the way to go in the future.
 
asheliz23 said:
Being that you are in the traditional Catholic section, “traditional Catholicism” is the only Catholicism. What is recommended for one is recommended for all. God does not give different requirements to Catholics who try to identify themselves one way or another. It is best not to eat meat on Fridays because that is what Catholics have done for a long time, until it was changed rather recently.
Click to expand...
Joe_5859 said:
The universal norm in the Code of Canon Law is for fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and for abstinence from meat on every Friday.
Click to expand...
Gemma, I want to make a little quibble about two words in these statements. Only and universal.

Eastern Catholics have a different canon law and particular law and that gives them a different fasting discipline. It doesn’t affect you so it isn’t really addressed here, but I don’t want you to be scandalized when you encounter an Eastern Catholic down the road and think there’s only one tradition or one canon law and he tells you he has a different tradition or canon law from you. There are many apostolic Catholic traditions and the one mainly being addressed here is the Latin or Roman tradition.

As for fasting, we abstain out of pious observance, disciplining ourselves and showing honor to God by avoiding blood and/or death and destruction on certain solemn days. It isn’t about feeling difficult. It’s about being soldiers in God’s army with good discipline and order. When we do that, we realize our reliance on God for everything we have, and we become contrite. There are steps in between not eating and seeing results and that’s where the real opportunity for spiritual growth exists. Without going any deeper into the soul, meatless Friday is just a diet. But it is still better to diet out of obedience than to eat out of apathy.
 
CDB1718 said:
Gemma, I want to make a little quibble about two words in these statements. Only and universal.

Eastern Catholics have a different canon law and particular law and that gives them a different fasting discipline. It doesn’t affect you so it isn’t really addressed here, but I don’t want you to be scandalized when you encounter an Eastern Catholic down the road and think there’s only one tradition or one canon law and he tells you he has a different tradition or canon law from you. There are many apostolic Catholic traditions and the one mainly being addressed here is the Latin or Roman tradition.

As for fasting, we abstain out of pious observance, disciplining ourselves and showing honor to God by avoiding blood and/or death and destruction on certain solemn days. It isn’t about feeling difficult. It’s about being soldiers in God’s army with good discipline and order. When we do that, we realize our reliance on God for everything we have, and we become contrite. There are steps in between not eating and seeing results and that’s where the real opportunity for spiritual growth exists. Without going any deeper into the soul, meatless Friday is just a diet. But it is still better to diet out of obedience than to eat out of apathy.
Click to expand...
Yes, my apologies to our oft-overlooked Eastern brothers and sisters. :o My comments refer to the Latin rite, of course.
 
CDB1718 said:
Gemma, I want to make a little quibble about two words in these statements. Only and universal.

Eastern Catholics have a different canon law and particular law and that gives them a different fasting discipline. It doesn’t affect you so it isn’t really addressed here, but I don’t want you to be scandalized when you encounter an Eastern Catholic down the road and think there’s only one tradition or one canon law and he tells you he has a different tradition or canon law from you. There are many apostolic Catholic traditions and the one mainly being addressed here is the Latin or Roman tradition.

As for fasting, we abstain out of pious observance, disciplining ourselves and showing honor to God by avoiding blood and/or death and destruction on certain solemn days. It isn’t about feeling difficult. It’s about being soldiers in God’s army with good discipline and order. When we do that, we realize our reliance on God for everything we have, and we become contrite. There are steps in between not eating and seeing results and that’s where the real opportunity for spiritual growth exists. Without going any deeper into the soul, meatless Friday is just a diet. But it is still better to diet out of obedience than to eat out of apathy.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the response
 
TeresaMarie24 said:
I’m glad I found this thread! I’m a revert and often forget about Friday penance. I guess I need to confess that. :o

Anyway, I read this article. newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-do-catholics-abstain-from-meat.html It’s written by a priest. Does this seem pretty accurate or is there any issue with it?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I was with him all the way until his final paragraph:

And a bishop, or Episcopal Conference, who understands the true meaning of abstinence would never allow Christians (on Fridays outside of Lent) to substitute the traditional practice by giving up some food other than meat, dairy, or eggs.

Maybe I’m reading it wrong, but it seems to me he is saying that if the bishops really understood abstinence, they wouldn’t allow substituting another form of penance. I don’t think that’s accurate or fair.

First, it’s basically saying that – since the bishops do allow for such a substitution outside of Lent, they therefore don’t understand abstinence. That’s a rather presumptuous claim.

Second, it rests on the assumption that abstinence from meat is the only penance that can reduce the passions. I don’t think that’s true, either.

It is an interesting explanation. He could be right. But I would appreciate some footnotes. He’s speaking of things regarding scientific research (with zinc and all that). Without citing where he’s pulling that from, it’s difficult for a reader to evaluate the claims on their own. That makes me cautious about accepting the claims at face value.

In any case, even if everything in the article is 100% factually correct, that doesn’t change our obligations. For those of us in the United States, those are all spelled out in the Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence. And that document allows for us to substitute another form of penance on Fridays outside of Lent.
 
Joe_5859 said:
I was with him all the way until his final paragraph:

And a bishop, or Episcopal Conference, who understands the true meaning of abstinence would never allow Christians (on Fridays outside of Lent) to substitute the traditional practice by giving up some food other than meat, dairy, or eggs.

Maybe I’m reading it wrong, but it seems to me he is saying that if the bishops really understood abstinence, they wouldn’t allow substituting another form of penance. I don’t think that’s accurate or fair.

First, it’s basically saying that – since the bishops do allow for such a substitution outside of Lent, they therefore don’t understand abstinence. That’s a rather presumptuous claim.

Second, it rests on the assumption that abstinence from meat is the only penance that can reduce the passions. I don’t think that’s true, either.

It is an interesting explanation. He could be right. But I would appreciate some footnotes. He’s speaking of things regarding scientific research (with zinc and all that). Without citing where he’s pulling that from, it’s difficult for a reader to evaluate the claims on their own. That makes me cautious about accepting the claims at face value.

In any case, even if everything in the article is 100% factually correct, that doesn’t change our obligations. For those of us in the United States, those are all spelled out in the Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence. And that document allows for us to substitute another form of penance on Fridays outside of Lent.
Click to expand...
Thanks Joe! I thought that was odd, too. :hmmm:
 
Unless I forget, or it is a special occasion, like a national holiday, wedding, etc.
 
In answer to the original question, we don’t eat meat on Wednesdays or Fridays during the regular year and never during the three lents except Sundays and solemnities.

Having said that, I have a curiosity. Why do people create these polls about who eats meat on Fridays, who wears a veil, who receives CITH or COTT, or who does whatever?

I ask the question not to be cheeky, but out of a real curiosity. When we were novices, we were taught that it was mortally sinful to ask these questions. Only a superior, confessor or spiritual director could ask such questions. In our own community, we never ask such questions. We’re taught that it is a grave invasion of another person’s spiritual journey.

I realize that lay people are not under any rule of life . . . though sometimes I wish everyone was. Life would be simpler; but that’s a topic for another day. However, isn’t this an invasive question of sorts?
 
JReducation said:
I realize that lay people are not under any rule of life . . . though sometimes I wish everyone was. Life would be simpler; but that’s a topic for another day. However, isn’t this an invasive question of sorts?
Click to expand...
It is different when you are on line.

No one knows me here. They aren’t standing in front of me, waiting to pass judgement.

I can close my laptop and walk away. Or I can just not answer the poll.

It is all totally voluntary. And totally different than asking someone in person.
 
Some of us made mistaken. Truth will hurt but lie hurt more if you are likely to let family know that you accident eat meat on lent month Friday. Family know, they understand. I did eat meat on Friday unintended but I try again to avoid meat. Meat is my addict.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top