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MEATLESS  FRIDAYS

and  the

Official  Church  Law
The National Conference of Catholic
(American) Bishops - NCCB

Studies Returning
Meatless Fridays


       The vast majority of Catholics today do not know that there is an existing obligation to abstain from meat on all Fridays of the year. While it is true that the Code of Canon Law allows for the substituting of another penitential practice, authorized by the NCCB, one has not been defined. As a consequence the abiding custom of the Church has been set aside. Neither bishops nor priests, with rare exception, inform the faithful of their obligations. Laxity and indifference have become the rule throughout most of the American Church in all matters of faith and morals. The congregations are being led straight into Hell.

       Laxity and indifference are particularly notable in relation to human life. As the value of life expands in its deterioration, the bishops continue their practice of public posturing. As noted in the news article following the quotations from the Code of Canon Law, the bishops are now consideringg the possibility of reintroducing that which is, in essence, already the existing law of the Catholic Church.

       If the average Catholic were asked if they abstain from meat on Fridays, they would say no. If asked what penitential practice they have substituted in place of not eating meat, they would commonly say none.

       Bishops, and the priests in their jurisdictions, have long neglected to teach about the obligatory requirement of either abstaining from meat on all Fridays of the year, or of substituting another observance. They have sinned by omission. It should be noted that even Pope Paul VI's variance in Paenitemini of 17 February, 1966 did not abrogate (terminate) the obligation to at least substitute another form of penitential practice.

       The bishops are proposing to possibly have Catholics -- do what they were commonly supposed to be doing anyway (NOTE: Most Catholics no longer believe in condemnatory sin and consequently do not go to obligatory confession when in grave sin. It is probable that today there are more Catholics with non-Catholic beliefs than there are Protestants.) -- express their concerns in regard to abortion and euthanasia by abstinence (not eating the meat of mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and fowl). This might to some seem an improvement to expressing the need for prayer in regard to the multitudes of innocent people daily being slaughtered by Godless people. During the seven month period of time intervening between making the proposal to discuss and actually possibly discussing the proposal their will have been between one-half million and over five million people legally murdered in America. Obviously they do not consider this to be a matter of grave concern.

What else could be said or done?

  1. Strongly remind Catholics of their obligation to oppose evil.
  2. Start instructing Catholics of the sinfulness of voting for pro-euthanasia, pro-abortion, and pro-sodomite political candidates at all levels of government.
  3. Remind people that works (Mat. 25:45-46 & James 2:10, 14, 17) are the required evidence of the faith that is needed to get into Heaven, and that apathy and indifference are condemnatory.
  4. Tell Catholics to pray and/or protest at all hospitals and clinics that terminate innocent human life from the instant of conception to natural death.
  5. Tell Catholics that if they are not able to act as stated above that they can write letters of protest to government officials, or articles to editors of newspapers.
  6. Encourage the fainthearted that at least they should protest the selling or showing of pornography at book stores, video stores, grocery stores, movie theaters, etc.
  7. Start church committees to help people get active in opposing evil and to associate them with someone of like mind so that they can act at least in pairs.
  8. Remind Catholics that cowards do not enter Heaven -- EVER.


The  CODE  of  CANON  LAW - Original Latin Text copyright 1983 Liberia Editrice
Vaticana, Vatican City – Book IV The Sanctifying Office of the Church

Chapter II

DAYS OF PENANCE

Can. 1249  All Christ's faithful are obliged by divine law, each in his or her own way, to do penance. However, so that all may be joined together in a certain common practice of penance, days of penance are prescribed. On these days the faithful are in a special manner to devote themselves to prayer, to engage in works of piety and charity, and to deny themselves, by fulfilling their obligations more faithfully and especially by observing the fast and abstinence which the following canons prescribe.

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. 1252  The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.

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.

(Emphasis has been added.)                Canon Law Society of America: Text & Commentary


TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1997 MOBILE REGISTER 7A

Catholic bishops to study return to meatless Fridays

By IRA RIFKIN
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON -- Roman Catholic bishops Monday voted to study bringing back "meatless Fridays" to express the church's opposition to legal abortion and other "attacks against human life and human dignity."

"Our people are waiting for a way in which they can publicly affirm their faith" and "show their opposition to the culture of death," said Cardinal Adam Maida, archbishop of Detroit.

In asking for the study as they opened their annual fall meeting here, the bishops specifically mentioned the widespread acceptance of abortion, growing support for euthanasia, the continuance of war and rising drug abuse.

The church leaders asked that committee reports on the proposal be ready for final action at their June 1998 meeting.

In Mobile, the Rev. Christopher Viscardi, theology professor at Spring Hill College, said, "I think attacks on human dignity are all over the nation ... Attacks are so rampant that we've gotten used to them. Anything that will help raise consciousness would be a good idea."

The Rev. Joseph Jennings, who served at Saint Pius X and Our Savior Catholic churches before retiring and who is filling in at Holy Name of Jesus Church in Semmes, lauded the suggestion of prayer and sacrifice that such a move would indicate.

"There's a need for prayer and a need for sacrifice. We have not had emphasis on it in recent times," he said. "I like meat like anybody else, but the fact that we give it up or make a sacrifice -- that has a value." Abstaining from eating meat was a standard church practice intended to remind the faithful of Jesus' suffering and crucifixion until Pope Paul VI allowed the bishops to establish their own dietary guidelines following the liberalizing Second Vatican Council, which ended in 1965.

Prior to that, the church insisted on meatless Fridays as an act of penance in preparation for confession and receiving communion. Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston said whether the bishops would again insist on the practice or only institute it on a voluntary basis was yet to be determined.

Some church leaders said avoiding red meat would be insufficient.

"A day without meat is hardly a day of penitence when one can always substitute a good lobster meal," said Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, archbishop of Philadelphia.

Bevilacqua and others urged that the study be expanded to include the possibility of asking Catholics to fast every Friday. Other bishops said, however, that would be too difficult for most Catholics and would undercut the effort.

About 280 bishops are in Washington for the four day meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and its social policy arm, the U.S. Catholic Conference.

Speaking to the gathering earlier Monday, Bishop Anthony M. Pilla of Cleveland, president of the NCCB, called for a greater "spirit of reconciliation" among Catholics.

"The first imperative for reconciliation surrounds the way in which some public discussion of issues takes place within the church," Pilla said. "Across the spectrum of church opinion there are some very angry voices who apparently feel justified in using a rhetoric of violence toward whoever disagrees with them."

Outside the Capitol Hill hotel where the meeting is being held, several dozen Catholics demonstrated in support of and against the bishops' Oct. 1 pastoral letter urging parents of homosexuals not to personally reject their children even as activities stemming from their sexual preference are condemned by church doctrine. At times, the two sides angrily confronted each other.

In other action Monday, the bishops voted to continue indefinitely their annual collection to help rebuild the church in the former Soviet Union and other ex-communist European nations.

The bishops also voted to hold their fourth "Encuentro," a national gathering designed to enhance the church's outreach to Hispanic Catholics, in the year 2000.

(Religion reporter Kristen Campbell contributed to this report.)

[Emphasis has been added.]

Heresy / Abstinence                Apostolic Constitution on Penance

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