Pork on Fridays in Lent?

[NPS]

Yes, but in most places it is considered very rude to put your guests in such a predicament. I know several people who would be aghast at the possibility that because of their own actions their guests would be put in a position such as that. Far from being miffed they would profusely apologize with all their heart.
Eating the food would only make it worse to some hosts.

Such is America nowadays–a dinner party is not for the guests, it is for the aggrandizement of the host’s fragile ego.

 

[Pug]

If my host is someone who has a $30 a month food budget (in the USA this is small), I’d just eat whatever they served me and not say anything. If I were a foreign diplomat at some dinner, I’d just eat it. If I accidentally cook a pork chop for myself, I’d not eat it. Somewhere in the middle there is a line.

I have no trouble at all believing the guy just forgot, especially if the date had been set long ago or moved at the last minute. Either that, or it was St. Paddy’s Day.

 

[m134e5]

Exactly

 

[Duffy]

1ke:

They should have asked.

Why do you have a hard time believing this? Last Friday I made cheese manicotti for dinner only to put bacon bits on our salad… duh! My husband is then, “what’s this on the salad”… “bacon bits”… “what’s this on the salad?”… “baco-- oh, cr*p…”.

I mean, I couldn’t even remember it was Friday after specifically cooking a meatless dinner entree.

Why don’t you just ask him? I would not assume some sinister motive.

Whew, who knew I’d get 40 replies?! I should have put more details in the original post. This isn’t now, and won’t turn into, a battle or scandal. The choir isn’t rolling their eyes behind the director’s back and talking about The Pork Incident. They have moved on.

The reason I asked is related to the reason that my best guess would not be that the man forgot. He is very, very meticulous and exacting in all his roles. As choir director and liturgist he is very precise in what he holds to be the liturgically correct way to do every little thing, and has made many changes (all to the better, so far) to bring us in line with the GIRM and our bishop. In his manner and dress he is fastidious. As host he was gracious and hard-working, planning everything well in advance and enlisting his brother to serve.

But as a theology student he will occasionally pull a “spirit of Vatican II” or “spirit of the GIRM” and claim that the liturgy really ought to include things manifestly not in the GIRM. He would love to have us not kneel where we plainly should kneel during the consecration, and is a big fan of hand-holding during the Our Father and of the orans posture, for instance.

So there are times when he feels that his understanding trumps current Church practice (and plain reading of liturgical documents). Based on his almost obsessive level of control and planning, and on the rebellious streak he sometimes exhibits, I thought it most likely that he was making some point with the pork, and was hoping that someone would ask about it so he could patiently explain why they were wrong and he was right. On the other hand if somehow the meat dish had truly slipped his mind, he would have been–to repeat a word already used in this thread–humiliated in front of his choir (I should mention that this guy is young enough to be the son or grandson of most of “his” choir). The detail freak in him would have been mortified.

That’s my reasoning on this. I’m not looking for ammo with which to go after the guy. I really thought that this was just the first I’d heard of some new fad making the round of “independent” theologians about the permissibility of pork (or meat in geneal) on Fridays in Lent. That does not seem to be the case, thankfully.

It was my wife who was at the dinner. I’m not sure what I would have done. Now I will know to be more prepared and check beforehand, as several posters have advised, even if the dinner is by someone who ought to know better!

Thanks, all.

 

[cathologos]

Duffy,

You still haven’t clarified one point: Was it March 17th? If it was, what diocese was it in? Was there a general dispensation concerning abstaining from meat on that day?

Edit: I note that you list your location as “San Diego.” I checked, and the local bishop did issue a general dispensation for St. Patrick’s Day. So…if the event was on March 17th, in San Diego, there was no requirement to abstain from meat.

 

[Duffy]

cathologos:

Duffy,

You still haven’t clarified one point: Was it March 17th? If it was, what diocese was it in? Was there a general dispensation concerning abstaining from meat on that day?

Edit: I note that you list your location as “San Diego.” I checked, and the local bishop did issue a general dispensation for St. Patrick’s Day. So…if the event was on March 17th, in San Diego, there was no requirement to abstain from meat.

Sorry. No, it wasn’t the 17th, it was the 3rd. So on the one hand it was the first Friday, so maybe easier to forget, but on the other hand it was only two days after Ash Wednesday!