D
Don_Ruggero
Guest
This is precisely the situation in which you can observe the letter of the law and make a mockery of its spirit.It is not the presence of fish which is to be penance, but the absence of flesh meat. If there is no flesh meat in your $20 to $40 fish entree, then of course it is a penance – The very penance prescribed by Canon 1251.
There is no sense in which someone dining on caviar or other delicacies of haute cuisine is having a penitential meal in the sense that the Church intends.