No mandatory abstinence this Friday!

[Richard320]

rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-friday-after-thanksgiving-day-indult_21.html

Leftovers are okay!

 

[Mrs_Sally]

Since Catholics in the US are only required to abstain on Fridays during Lent, this doesn’t apply anyway. And as one commenter said, that particular indult was likely overridden by the changes in canon law.

Certainly those who still choose to abstain as their Friday penance can make whatever adjustments they choose. Although my family usually abstains on Fridays year round, there are certain days we choose a different penance and the Friday after Thanksgiving is one of them. Yummy turkey soup!

 

[codefro]

Since Catholics in the US are only required to abstain on Fridays during Lent, this doesn’t apply anyway. And as one commenter said, that particular indult was likely overridden by the changes in canon law.

Certainly those who still choose to abstain as their Friday penance can make whatever adjustments they choose. Although my family usually abstains on Fridays year round, there are certain days we choose a different penance and the Friday after Thanksgiving is one of them. Yummy turkey soup!

I am certainly hoping and praying for a return of year-round meatless Fridays

 

[JM3]

Code of Canon Law

vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P4O.HTM

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.

 

[ConstantineTG]

I am certainly hoping and praying for a return of year-round meatless Fridays

Technically it is not year-round because there are Feast Days that fall on a Friday and of course the weeks of no fasting (like the week after Christmas and the week after Easter).

 

[ilySHJ]

Code of Canon Law

vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P4O.HTM

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.

From my years as a catechist, Canon 1251 is what I recall. Through an indult, some US bishops allow the faithful in their diocese to substitute some other mortification.

Technically it is not year-round because there are Feast Days that fall on a Friday and of course the weeks of no fasting (like the week after Christmas and the week after Easter).

There’s no fasting on Solemnities, but Friday Feast days remain days of prayer, penance, and fasting.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

Code of Canon Law

vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P4O.HTM

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.

This canon does not apply, as written, to the United States.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. We should avoid causing confusion through misleading quotations of canon law, for the sake of scrupulous people out there.

 

[Hmgbrd]

Quote:
Originally Posted by JM3
Code of Canon Law

vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P4O.HTM

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.

This canon does not apply, as written, to the United States.

This is probably a stupid question, but why is this canon exempt for the United States? ( Just curious, but don’t want to derail the thread.)

 

[JM3]

Quote:
Originally Posted by JM3
Code of Canon Law

vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P4O.HTM

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.

This canon does not apply, as written, to the United States.

This is probably a stupid question, but why is this canon exempt for the United States? ( Just curious, but don’t want to derail the thread.)

Answer: The US is not exempt from this Canon.

A search of the USCCB web site for “abstinence norms” bring up this page, among a few more.

usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-resources/lent/catholic-information-on-lenten-fast-and-abstinence.cfm

At the bottom of the page are links. One is to Canon Laws 1249-1253. So, yes, Canon 1251 does apply. I am also aware that the USCCB allows for other penances instead of abstinence from meat, per Canon 1253.

 

[ConstantineTG]

There’s no fasting on Solemnities, but Friday Feast days remain days of prayer, penance, and fasting.

My apologies I am using “Eastern Language” Feast Days would be the equivalent of Solemnities.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

And here is Canon 1253:

Can. 1253 The conference of bishops can determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence as well as substitute other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety, in whole or in part, for abstinence and fast.

This is from Cardinal Dolan’s address to the bishops’ general assembly last week.

The work of our Conference during the coming year includes reflections on re-embracing Friday as a particular day of penance, including the *possible re-institution *of abstinence on all Fridays of the year, not just during Lent. Our pastoral plan offers numerous resources for catechesis on the Sacrament of Penance, and the manifold graces that come to us from the frequent use of confession. Next June we will gather in a special assembly as brother bishops to pray and reflect on the mission entrusted to us by the Church, including our witness to personal conversion in Jesus Christ, and so to the New Evangelization.

The Cardinal would not be speaking of a *re-institution *if the US bishops had not previously said that Catholics in the US were not required to make abstainance their Friday penance outside of Lent.

 

[JM3]

You’ll notice he said “abstinence”, not penance.

 

[Richard320]

Man, why does everything have to turn into an argument here? :doh2:

I know meatless Fridays are not mandatory outside of Lent, but it is still practiced by a lot of people on this board, including me. I find it a lot easier to remember than anything else.

 

[Faithdancer]

This canon does not apply, as written, to the United States.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. We should avoid causing confusion through misleading quotations of canon law, for the sake of scrupulous people out there.

Who’s scrupulous?? Not me!!! (Ack got to got to get to confession again it’s been two days!)

 

[Maria1993]

^^HEY I have problems with scrupulosity sometimes…that is not how I think .__.

And can someone tell me, why does the year round abstinence of meat on Fridays NOT apply to the USA? No personal opinions please, just a real answer. Thanks!!

 

[JM3]

^^HEY I have problems with scrupulosity sometimes…that is not how I think .__.

And can someone tell me, why does the year round abstinence of meat on Fridays NOT apply to the USA? No personal opinions please, just a real answer. Thanks!!

Canon 1253

The conference of bishops can determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence as well as substitute other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety, in whole or in part, for abstinence and fast.

USCCB statement on November 18, 1966:

old.usccb.org/lent/2008/Penance_and_Abstinence.pdf

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 by freely making of every Friday a
   day of self-denial and mortification in prayerful remembrance of the
   passion of Jesus Christ.

1. Every Catholic Christian understands that the fast and
   abstinence regulations admit of change, unlike the
   commandments and precepts of that unchanging divine
   moral law which the Church must today and always defend
   as immutable. This said, we emphasize that our people are
   henceforth free from the obligation traditionally binding
   under pain of sin in what pertains to Friday abstinence,
   except as noted above for Lent. We stress this so that “no”
   scrupulosity will enter into examinations of conscience,
   confessions, or personal decisions on this point.

Because the obligation was no longer a sin, people were under the mistaken impression that it was abrogated.

 

[thewanderer]

Canon 1253

The conference of bishops can determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence as well as substitute other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety, in whole or in part, for abstinence and fast.

USCCB statement on November 18, 1966:

old.usccb.org/lent/2008/Penance_and_Abstinence.pdf

Because the obligation was no longer a sin, people were under the mistaken impression that it was abrogated.

The necessity to perform some sort of penance/work of charity/piety was never abrogated, but the specific act of abstaining is not required on fridays except during lent. In your original post you claimed that abstaining on fridays was a requirement, currently that is just not true in the US. Some form of penance is required, but not necessarily abstinance.

 

[JM3]

The necessity to perform some sort of penance/work of charity/piety was never abrogated, but the specific act of abstaining is not required on fridays except during lent. In your original post you claimed that abstaining on fridays was a requirement, currently that is just not true in the US. Some form of penance is required, but not necessarily abstinance.

True, but I believe I corrected myself in post 9.

From the USCCB document:

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 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.

Let’s see if I can be clearer. The U.S. is not exempt from Canon 1251. Canon 1251 is applied, in the U.S., by Canon 1253.

 

[Elizium23]

It is Father Z’s opinion (and mine) that in the United States, there is currently no obligation under pain of sin to do anything on Fridays outside of Lent. Penance and abstinence are “strongly encouraged” but the rule of abstinence was “hereby terminated” and not replaced with any other moral obligation.

It is the opinion of the bishops of England and Wales that their renewed call for abstinence on all Fridays does not mean that failure to observe this on individual Fridays is a mortal sin, but it is rather the intention to observe this penance in general binds gravely.

 

[thewanderer]

True, but I believe I corrected myself in post 9.

From the USCCB document:

Let’s see if I can be clearer. The U.S. is not exempt from Canon 1251. Canon 1251 is applied, in the U.S., by Canon 1253.

Got it, I think people were mostly objecting to your first statement.