Vatican Studying Law on Fasting in the Philippines

[janeway529]

MANILA - Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz said the Vatican is now studying the law on fasting and abstinence, specifically for the Philippines.

He said both the Congregation of the Faith and the Congregation of the Liturgy is making the study.

“The fasting norm is that we have to eat one full meal and two 1/2 or 1/4 meals a day and avoid pork and eat fish,” Cruz explained.

“But it has come to the attention of the Vatican that during Fridays of Lent, a good number of people are very happy and rejoicing.”

The church leader said that in lieu of eating meat, Filipinos would usually feast on expensive seafood like crabs, prawns and lobsters. This, he said, is not consistent with the idea of abstinence.

“The essence of abstinence is sacrifice: you experience some kind of discomfort for eating something that you don’t want or eating less than what you want.”

Read it all: abs-cbnnews.com/nation/03/04/14/vatican-studying-law-fasting-ph

 

[RPRPsych]

Read it all: abs-cbnnews.com/nation/03/04/14/vatican-studying-law-fasting-ph

I’ve seen this happen in Western countries, too. I remember a photograph from the US presidential election in 2012, where a candidate appeared at a Catholic university where they were barbecuing shrimp with abandon. Sort of misses the whole point of penance.

 

[ProVobis]

I’ve seen this happen in Western countries, too. I remember a photograph from the US presidential election in 2012, where a candidate appeared at a Catholic university where they were barbecuing shrimp with abandon. Sort of misses the whole point of penance.

Indeed.

Were you around in the 60’s when Catholics celebrated the relaxation of the Friday meat abstinence by devouring as much meat as they could the very next Friday? Quite a spectacle.

 

[RPRPsych]

Indeed.

Were you around in the 60’s

Not unless I had a time machine, no. (Funny, because I’m actually working on a story involving time travel!) I was born in 1979 A.D.

when Catholics celebrated the relaxation of the Friday meat abstinence by devouring as much meat as they could the very next Friday? Quite a spectacle.

Silly and inappropriate of them. At least they waited for permission, unlike the famous (legendary?) story of the early Protestant who started a riot by eating a sausage on Friday. (Source: Diarmaid McCulloch, The Reformation.)

I guess “to miss the point is human; to forgive, divine.”

Oh, and: Ven. Paul VI, pray for us.