Fast this Friday Dec. 27

[MikeDunphy]

jimmyakin.com/2004/07/friday_penance_.html

Thanks for the link. The problem I see with Mr. Akin’s discussion of the current code of canon law and Pope Paul’s *Paenitemini *is that he does not present clearly the content of the documents. Quoting the specific laws in question clarifies things quite a bit. Here are the relevant sections of Paenitemini:

II. 1. The time of Lent preserves its penitential character. The days of penitence to be observed under obligation throughout the Church are all Fridays and Ash Wednesday, that is to say the first days of “Grande Quaresima” (Great Lent), according to the diversity of the rites. Their substantial observance binds gravely.
2. Apart from the faculties referred to in VI and VIII regarding the manner of fulfilling the precept of penitence on such days, abstinence is to be observed on every Friday which does not fall on a day of obligation, while abstinence and fast is to be observed on Ash Wednesday or, according to the various practices of the rites, on the first day of “Grande Quaresima” (Great Lent) and on Good Friday.

VI. 1. In accordance with the conciliar decree Christus Dominus regarding the pastoral office of bishops, number 38,4, it is the task of episcopal conferences to:
A. Transfer for just cause the days of penitence, always taking into account the Lenten season;
B. Substitute abstinence and fast wholly or in part with other forms of penitence and especially works of charity and the exercises of piety.

The above is not vague or hard to read, and, as with the current code of canon law, there is nothing there allowing for an optional observance of Friday penitence.

Mr. Akin wrote:
Paenitemini does recognize the concept of a “day of penance/penitence,” so it does call to our attention the good being secured through fast and abstinence. However, merely because the document calls the goal of a particular law to our attention does not remotely mean that one can infer the existence of a legal obligation to secure this goal on a particular day through alternative means when particular law only mandates the use of traditional means on certain days.

Actually, the document did more than just call our attention to a goal. It specifically named Fridays as days of abstinence, with the addition that episcopal conferences could substitute other forms of penitence. What it did not do is give bishop’s conferences the authority to cancel the Friday obligation altogether. Neither does current law.

Thanks for the other links; I’ll read them with interest.

 

[JM3]

vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-vi_apc_19660217_paenitemini_en.html

Therefore, the following is declared and established:

I. 1. By divine law all the faithful are required to do penance.

1. The prescriptions of ecclesiastical law regarding penitence are totally reorganized according to the following norms:

II. 1. The time of Lent preserves its penitential character. The days of penitence to be observed under obligation throughout the Church are all Fridays and Ash Wednesday, that is to say the first days of “Grande Quaresima” (Great Lent), according to the diversity of the rites. Their substantial observance binds gravely.

 

[MikeDunphy]

One of the canons says that they “can determine more particular ways in which fasting and abstinence are to be observed.”

Is it to some degree counterintuitive to suggest that this canon gives the U.S. bishops the authority to suspend the obligation to abstain from meat without legislating something in its place? Probably.

Here is the whole canon. It would be more than just counterintuitive to say that it authorizes our bishops to “abolish Friday”; it would be wrong. The canon is clear:
*Can. 1253 The Episcopal Conference can determine more particular ways in which fasting and abstinence are to be observed. In place of abstinence or fasting it can substitute, in whole or in part, other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.

*There is nothing there authorizing the bishops to abolish Friday abstinence altogether. They lack that authority. Lack of attention from Rome does not give them that authority, either.

(Now of course the faithful who have never heard of any Friday obligation can’t be blamed for failing to do anything special on Fridays. It wasn’t their fault. The Church keeps Fridays as days of atonement but the message has not gotten through to them. This silence is harmful, I think. Friday abstinence is an ever-renewed reminder to repent, to turn away from sin, to serve God and not ourselves. It is not harsh, nor empty legalism. It is the mildest of reminders that we are made to be saints and it is training for heaven. I too fear that some souls, lacking that reminder and others, grow in complacency and sin, and are lost.)

 

[MikeDunphy]

"One will note that norm VI.2 only says that the conference is to notify Rome “by way of information”–i.e., so that it can keep track of what the bishops’ conferences are doing… The reveals a fairly permissive attitude on Rome’s part regarding what bishops’ conferences can do regarding penance in their countries.

What bishops’ conferences can do is specified in the section that says they can substitute penances, not in the section that says that they have to keep the Holy See informed.