Meat on Fridays?

[jemfinch]

I’ve heard conflicting reports on this. As far as I know, some penitential act is necessary, but it doesn’t have to be abstinence from meat.

In my case, I’ve chosen abstinence from meat as my penitential act because I have to think about it all day long and, as someone who was Protestant until less than a year ago, it’s still really new (and not super-easy) for me.

So I ate meat the other Friday for dinner (after abstaining all day) because I didn’t want to offend the host of the party I was attending. I went to confession the next day and my confessor told me that he didn’t think it was a sin to eat meat on Fridays (or even not to perform a penitential act at all), but since someone else had recently asked him about it, he’d look into it.

So I just want an authoritative word on the issue, if anyone can provide a reference to Canon law or something stated by the Columbus (Ohio) Diocese, that’d be swell.

While I’ve got you here, though, I might as well ask a couple related questions:

1. What if I know that it’ll be somewhat socially necessary to eat meat? What are valid penitential alternatives?
2. What if I eat meat on accident? Should I then do a penitential alternative?

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[CRW]

I’ve heard conflicting reports on this. As far as I know, some penitential act is necessary, but it doesn’t have to be abstinence from meat.Jeremy

Fast and Abstinence
It is a traditional doctrine of Christian spirituality that a constituent part of repentance, of turning away from sin and back to God, includes some form of penance, without which the Christian is unlikely to remain on the narrow path and be saved (Jer 18:11, 25:5; Ez 18:30, 33:11-15; Joel 2:12; Mt 3:2; Mt 4:17; Acts 2:38). Christ Himself said that His disciples would fast once He had departed (Lk 5:35). The general law of penance, therefore, is part of the law of God for man.
The Church for her part has specified certain forms of penance, both to ensure that the Catholic will do something, as required by divine law, while making it easy for Catholics to fulfill the obligation. Thus, the 1983 Code of Canon Law specifies the obligations of Latin Rite Catholics [Eastern Rite Catholics have their own penitential practices as specified by the Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches].
Canon 1250 All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the entire Church.
Canon 1251 Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless (nisi) they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Canon 1252 All persons who have completed their fourteenth year are bound by the law of abstinence; all adults are bound by the law of fast up to the beginning of their sixtieth year. Nevertheless, pastors and parents are to see to it that minors who are not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are educated in an authentic sense of penance.

Can. 1253 It is for the conference of bishops to determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence and to substitute in whole or in part for fast and abstinence other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.
The Church, therefore, has two forms of official penitential practices - three if the Eucharistic fast of one hour before Communion is included:
Can. 919 - § 1. Whoever is to receive the blessed Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before Holy Communion from all food and drink, with the sole exception of water and medicine.

§ 2. A priest who, on the same day, celebrates the blessed Eucharist twice or three times may consume something before the second or third celebration, even though there is not an hour’s interval.

§ 3. The elderly and those who are suffering from some illness, as well as those who care for them, may receive the blessed Eucharist even if within the preceding hour they have consumed something.

Abstinence The law of abstinence requires a Catholic 14 years of age until death to abstain from eating meat on Fridays in honor of the Passion of Jesus on Good Friday. Meat is considered to be the flesh and organs of mammals and fowl. Also forbidden are soups or gravies made from them. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are permitted, as are animal derived products such as margarine and gelatin which do not have any meat taste.
On the Fridays outside of Lent the U.S. bishops conference obtained the permission of the Holy See for Catholics in the US to substitute a penitential, or even a charitable, practice of their own choosing. They must do some penitential/charitable practice on these Fridays. For most people the easiest practice to consistently fulfill will be the traditional one, to abstain from meat on all Fridays of the year. During Lent abstinence from meat on Fridays is obligatory in the United States as elsewhere.
Fasting The law of fasting requires a Catholic from the 18th to the 59th birthday to reduce the amount of food eaten from normal. The Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal in quantity. Such fasting is obligatory on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The fast is broken by eating between meals and by drinks which could be considered food (milk shakes, but not milk). Alcoholic beverages do not break the fast; however, they seem to be contrary to the spirit of doing penance.
Those who are excused from fast or abstinence Besides those outside the age limits, those of unsound mind, the sick, the frail, pregnant or nursing women according to need for meat or nourishment, manual laborers according to need, guests at a meal who cannot excuse themselves without giving great offense or causing enmity and other situations of moral or physical impossibility to observe the penitential discipline.

Aside from these minimum penitential requirements Catholics are encouraged to impose some personal penance on themselves at other times. It could be modeled after abstinence and fasting.

 

[wjp984]

Well I don’t think it is a grave matter since I didn’t see the word grave anywhere in there so it would be at most a venial sin and therefore would not need to be confessed. I could be wrong. I am really bad at following the no meat rule/pennance on Fridays outside of Lent. In fact, I usually ignore it. However, during Lent I don’t eat meat on Wednesdays or Fridays and almsot always remember.

 

[jemfinch]

Since it’s a precept of the Church, and violating the precepts of the Church is a grave matter, it would be a grave matter

Jeremy

 

[thistle]

Since it’s a precept of the Church, and violating the precepts of the Church is a grave matter, it would be a grave matter

Jeremy

Leaving aside Ash Wednesday and Good Friday when you do have to abstain as well as fast, all other Fridays in the year require some form of penance of which not eating meat is a choice (but not mandatory). Like you I choose not to eat meat. In fact before Christmas I did eat meat on the Friday but later in the day prayed additional prayers to those I normally pray. I was sure that was okay but in my normal Confession I mentioned it and the priest said what I did fulfilled my penance obligation.

CCC 1438 The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).

Canon 1253 allows for other penance to be substituted for abstaining from meat and as far as I know in most countries a choice of penance is given.

Canon Code:

Can. 1250 The days and times of penance for the universal Church are each Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.

Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

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.

Not doing any form of penance on a Friday would be grave matter.

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

Here is some information I found about the position taken by bishops in the US.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) , then known as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, stated in its Pastoral Statement On Penance and Abstinence, November 18, 1966, stated regarding non-Lenten Fridays:

“… the Catholic bishops of the United States, far from downgrading the traditional penitential observance of Friday, and motivated precisely by the desire to give the spirit of penance greater vitality, especially on Fridays, the day that Jesus died, urge our Catholic people henceforth to be guided by the following norms:

1. Friday itself remains a special day of penitential observance throughout the year, a time when those who seek perfection will be mindful of their personal sins and the sins of mankind which they are called upon to help expiate in union with Christ Crucified;

1. Friday should be in each week something of what Lent is in the entire year. For this reason* we urge *all to prepare for that weekly Easter that comes with each Sunday be freely making of every Friday a day of self-denial and mortification in prayerful remembrance of the passion of Jesus Christ;

1. Among the works of voluntary self-denial and personal penance which we especially commend to our people for the future observance of Friday, even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence as binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat. We do so in the hope that the Catholic community will ordinarily continue to abstain from meat by free choice as formerly we did in obedience to Church law. Our expectation is based on the following considerations;

a. We shall thus freely and out of love for Christ Crucified show our solidarity with the generations of believers to whom this practice frequently became, especially in times of persecution and of great poverty, no mean evidence of fidelity in Christ and his Church.

b. We shall thus also remind ourselves that as Christians, although immersed in the world and sharing its life, we must preserve a saving and necessary difference from the spirit of the world. Our deliberate, personal abstinence from meat, more especially because no longer required by law, will be an outward sign of inward spiritual values that we cherish.”

Here is another link with more info. I notice on the section that refers to Fridays during Lent and Ash Wednesday and Good Friday the language is very clear… we are to follow the laws of abstinence as we always did. But in the section that talks about Fridays outside of Lent is says “Catholics are urged”. This does not appear to be very firm language that says we have to perform a penitential act on Fridays under pain of sin. The language seems a little wishy washy to me…maybe that is why so many Catholics are confused on the subject? That being said, I almost always abstain from meat on Fridays and if not, I do some other penitential act.

Oh by the way, this site also details a number of forms of penance one could perform on a Friday.

 

[CRW]

Well I don’t think it is a grave matter since I didn’t see the word grave anywhere in there so it would be at most a venial sin and therefore would not need to be confessed. I could be wrong. I am really bad at following the no meat rule/pennance on Fridays outside of Lent. In fact, I usually ignore it. However, during Lent I don’t eat meat on Wednesdays or Fridays and almsot always remember.

Ash Wednesday ans Fridays of Lent are considered mandatory and would be grave sins if one voluntary fails to submit to Church guidelines; same as missing Mass on Sunday.

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

I’ve heard conflicting reports on this. As far as I know, some penitential act is necessary, but it doesn’t have to be abstinence from meat.

In my case, I’ve chosen abstinence from meat as my penitential act because I have to think about it all day long and, as someone who was Protestant until less than a year ago, it’s still really new (and not super-easy) for me.

So I ate meat the other Friday for dinner (after abstaining all day) because I didn’t want to offend the host of the party I was attending. I went to confession the next day and my confessor told me that he didn’t think it was a sin to eat meat on Fridays (or even not to perform a penitential act at all), but since someone else had recently asked him about it, he’d look into it.

So I just want an authoritative word on the issue, if anyone can provide a reference to Canon law or something stated by the Columbus (Ohio) Diocese, that’d be swell.

While I’ve got you here, though, I might as well ask a couple related questions:

1. What if I know that it’ll be somewhat socially necessary to eat meat? What are valid penitential alternatives?
2. What if I eat meat on accident? Should I then do a penitential alternative?

Thanks,
Jeremy

That’s the problem with the current system of personal penance. Since it is not a community act, there are no answers to your questions.
For instance, if all Catholics refrain from eating meat of Fridays, then it is reasonable to expect a hostess to accomodate this, and there might be a norm established that refusal is the thing to do. If it is a purely personal discipline, opinion will differ, then the hostess has a legitimate complaint that she doesn’t know where she is, and her catering is being made unnecessarily difficult.

My current system is to attend mass and benediction, abstain from meat, and abstain from drink, on Fridays. However I am quite free on breaking any of these, on the basis that I have a backup discipline. However I wouldn’t say it the ideal.

 

[Georgess]

Thank you for bringing up this area of neglect and confusion for many …and for the good info above , esp. examples of personal penance …

May I add that for those who belong to some of the Eastern / Oriental Rites, such as The Syro-Malabar rite, even when they live in the west , the Fr. meat abstinence is to be observed ( checked on this recently , with those who are to know )

While some may take this as constraining, the truthful way to see it is possibly look at all the struggles families go through, to separate themselves from the values of the world… ; fidelity to such a small matter , as simple and straight forward as Fri.meat absinence , hopefully will bring with it , the grace to be faithful in larger realms and hence worth striving for …

And next time , when we see smart young Islamic women in the traditional garb , there will be a little less angst - as to what are we not doing right