Lent, Fasting, French Fries

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While it’s perhaps not in the spirit of Lent to partake, you are technically allowed to eat broths and sauces and the like derived from meat.

While I appreciate the information regarding the fries, and will leave them alone during Lent, millions of people are*** NOT*** in sin because of them. Sin takes free will, AND they are technically allowed to eat the fries.
 
I guess catholic.org is in sin then by telling me otherwise. Sorry to stir up so much trouble, I guess I will eat lots of McD’s fries on Fridays now, and ignore catholic.org. Maybe I will contact McDonalds and ask them to put more meat in the fries. I wonder how much they can put in before its wrong.I suppose as long as the fries are at least 51% potatoe I am ok.

Thanks everyone for helping. Gonna get a 50 cent large fry on Friday.
 
DomaGB3 said:
I guess catholic.org is in sin then by telling me otherwise. Sorry to stir up so much trouble, I guess I will eat lots of McD’s fries on Fridays now, and ignore catholic.org. Maybe I will contact McDonalds and ask them to put more meat in the fries. I wonder how much they can put in before its wrong.I suppose as long as the fries are at least 51% potatoe I am ok.

Thanks everyone for helping. Gonna get a 50 cent large fry on Friday.
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The Church has said it’s fine. Do you trust the Church, or not?
 
DomaGB3 said:
I guess catholic.org is in sin then by telling me otherwise. Sorry to stir up so much trouble, I guess I will eat lots of McD’s fries on Fridays now, and ignore catholic.org. Maybe I will contact McDonalds and ask them to put more meat in the fries. I wonder how much they can put in before its wrong.I suppose as long as the fries are at least 51% potatoe I am ok.

Thanks everyone for helping. Gonna get a 50 cent large fry on Friday.
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Or you could calm down and behave in a rational manner. 🤷
 
DomaGB3 said:
Someone should punish catholic.org for leading us astray.
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:rolleyes: Calm down. Such drama does nothing for anyone’s image.

Catholic.org isn’t leading anyone astray…to do that, they’d have to lead someone into sin. If you want to avoid products like gravy and fries, do so. I would council to be sure that you’re doing so for love of the Lord, and not simply to appear righteous in everyone else’s eyes…that was the Pharisees’ trick, not ours.
 
DomaGB3 said:
ok here are the links:

nutrition.mcdonalds.com/getnutrition/ingredientslist.pdf
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For those who did not look up the pdf:
"French Fries Ingredients:
Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*, citric acid [preservative]), dextrose, sodium acid
pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to
preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.
*(Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients).
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I’m not sure this proves your point, nor does this ingredient list seem to be all that helpful. From what I’m reading, french friest at McDonalds contain potatoes + vegetable oil (however it is that they actually contain vegetable oil and are then later fried in vegetable oil), and that the vegetable oil contains “Natural beef flavour”. Whatever the heck “natural beef flavour” means, because they say they “start” with wheat and milk.

Speaking personally as a person who has eaten his fair share of McDonalds fries in his life (ok, that’s enough third person for me), I have never had the experience of them tasting like beef. Unsurprisingly, then taste like potatoes that were deep fried, ie. potatoes + hot oil.

I wonder if they are “dipped” in vegetable oil that contains some kind of beef broth or flavouring, then frozen, shipped and deep-fried (in more vegetable oil)? Otherwise, I’m a bit confused about how the friend themselves contain vegetable oil (I’m not a chef nor a food expert, so I might just be ignorant about this).
DomaGB3 said:
Thousands or even millions of Catholics in sin and don’t know it.
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False. You can’t “be in sin” without knowing it because one of the conditions for mortal sin is that you have Full Knowledge that it is a sin (I’m assuming that by “in sin” you mean “in a state of mortal sin”, because let’s face it, I’m pretty confident we all commit venial sins on a pretty regular basis and so as a distinction that people are “in venial sin” is not that interesting because at any given time it contains a large portion of the population. The others being those who are super-holy and those who just left the confessional).
 
DomaGB3 said:
And its purpose in them is for flavor, thus voiding the Catholic regulation on fasting for beef on Fridays for lent.
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Do you have an authoritative citation or educated secondary source (like a canon lawyer) vouching for this? I’m skeptical. What you’re saying seems awfully legalistic.
DomaGB3 said:
Thousands or even millions of Catholics in sin and don’t know it.
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No. Even if you’re right about current fasting and abstinence rules, they’re not in sin at all if they had no idea the fries contain beef. To assert otherwise is the very epitome of absurd legalism.
DomaGB3 said:
I guess catholic.org is in sin then by telling me otherwise. Sorry to stir up so much trouble, I guess I will eat lots of McD’s fries on Fridays now, and ignore catholic.org. Maybe I will contact McDonalds and ask them to put more meat in the fries. I wonder how much they can put in before its wrong.I suppose as long as the fries are at least 51% potatoe I am ok.

Thanks everyone for helping. Gonna get a 50 cent large fry on Friday.
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It’s really not good for you spiritually to be so melodramatic. No one’s trying to skirt the rules. Pointing out that legalism is neither healthy nor legislated by the Church is not skirting the rules.
DomaGB3 said:
Someone should punish catholic.org for leading us astray.
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Again, why the melodrama? It’s just a website. One always has to check sources for things one reads on the Internet.
 
And concerning the law of abstinence itself:

… the links all establish that, as far as I can gather, McDonald’s uses “beef extract” in the fries and calls it “natural flavoring.”

I had to look up what “beef extract” is, and I’m still not exactly sure. But according to Jimmy Akin, who cites his sources, the relevant authoritative document is Pope Paul VI’s Paenitemini, which states, "The law of abstinence forbids the use of meat, but not of eggs, the products of milk or condiments made of animal fat [Norm III:1]."

As I said, I’m not rightly sure what the heck “beef extract” is. I’m guessing it would go under what Church law as quoted above considers “condiments made of animal fat.”

Which means fries at McDonald’s don’t violate the letter of the law on Fridays of Lent.

Or am I wrong?

(I feel stupid even to be asking, as this seems so legalistic, but better to address it definitively now than later…)
 
Lol, don’t feed the troll. At least…no meat. And not just on Fridays.

But I like your style. The new fasting regulations pale in comparison to the fasts of the past. In fact, for most of Church history it was impossible to say one was fasting if one consumed any animal products (meat, drippings, milk, eggs, etc.). Ahhh, to go back to the good old days. What we have now is 2 days of semi-fasting and 38 days of a very mild detox.

By the way, a far better solution would be to just stop eating at McDonald’s, period :sad_yes:
 
DomaGB3 said:
I guess catholic.org is in sin then by telling me otherwise. Sorry to stir up so much trouble, I guess I will eat lots of McD’s fries on Fridays now, and ignore catholic.org. Maybe I will contact McDonalds and ask them to put more meat in the fries. I wonder how much they can put in before its wrong.I suppose as long as the fries are at least 51% potatoe I am ok.

Thanks everyone for helping. Gonna get a 50 cent large fry on Friday.
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:eek: You can get fries for 50 cents :eek: The cheapest here is a dollar and that is for the small. Does anyone else sense a troll?
 
For the price of a small fry at our local fast food place, I can buy a ten pound bag of potatoes.
 
By the way, a far better solution would be to just stop eating at McDonald’s, period :sad_yes:
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Actually, you’re right. As a start for some - a penance during Lent. And for others (including me) a permanent abstinence for reasons that have nothing to do with Faith.

P.S. I just viewed this and it is the first time I’ve attempted to isolate a sentence in another’s thread. So far I need improvement, but (whoa!) I almost succeeded!!! 🙂
 
mgsk said:
Lol, don’t feed the troll. At least…no meat. And not just on Fridays.

But I like your style. The new fasting regulations pale in comparison to the fasts of the past. In fact, for most of Church history it was impossible to say one was fasting if one consumed any animal products (meat, drippings, milk, eggs, etc.). Ahhh, to go back to the good old days. What we have now is 2 days of semi-fasting and 38 days of a very mild detox.
By the way, a far better solution would be to just stop eating at McDonald’s, period :sad_yes:
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:rotfl::rotfl:

I’m all for the plan of giving up Mickey D’s and other fast food for Lent. How about giving up eating out all together! :bigyikes:
 
Mrs_Sally said:
:rotfl::rotfl:

I’m all for the plan of giving up Mickey D’s and other fast food for Lent. How about giving up eating out all together! :bigyikes:
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Since we rarely do Mickey D’s, I would have to EAT the awful stuff for a Lenten penance. (Except for the fries, I like the fries) 😃
 
mgsk said:
Lol, don’t feed the troll. At least…no meat. And not just on Fridays.

But I like your style. The new fasting regulations pale in comparison to the fasts of the past. In fact, for most of Church history it was impossible to say one was fasting if one consumed any animal products (meat, drippings, milk, eggs, etc.). Ahhh, to go back to the good old days. What we have now is 2 days of semi-fasting and 38 days of a very mild detox.

By the way, a far better solution would be to just stop eating at McDonald’s, period :sad_yes:
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And a far healthier solution as well. Where is Mayor Bloomberg when you really need him? Why, if he had his way, he’d close all fast-food restaurants.
 
Oh, remember the days when McDonalds did cook fries in beef fat. Ohhh they were sooo gooood! In my opinion, they are not even worth eating anymore.
 
DomaGB3 said:
I guess catholic.org is in sin then by telling me otherwise. Sorry to stir up so much trouble, I guess I will eat lots of McD’s fries on Fridays now, and ignore catholic.org. Maybe I will contact McDonalds and ask them to put more meat in the fries. I wonder how much they can put in before its wrong.I suppose as long as the fries are at least 51% potatoe I am ok.

Thanks everyone for helping. Gonna get a 50 cent large fry on Friday.
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FIFTY cent large fry? Where do you live, because I am moving there immediately.
 
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