Subject: Friday Abstinence (1 of 3)
> Fri, 29 Dec 1995 19:07:10
> Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 19:07:08 -0500 (EST)
> From: Rick Kephart <rmk@netaxs.com
> To: Father Mateo <mollerus@cin.org
> Subject: Friday Abstinence
>
> For years, I have been hearing contradictory rumors. On the one
> hand, many people say that Catholics may now eat meat on
> Fridays outside of Lent because of the new canon law. On the
> other hand, many people say that it is still a sin to eat meat
> on Fridays because the Bishops' Conference in the U.S. has
> never substituted anything else to replace abstaining from
> meat, as canon law requires, so the law regarding abstaining
> from meat on Fridays remains in force for Catholics in the U.S.
> My question is: Is there an official document anywhere that can
> settle this matter once and for all?
Dear Rick,
The document you seek is the NCCB Complementary Norms on Penance and
Abstinence of November 18, 1966, which reads in part:
"Lent has had a different history from Advent among us.
Beginning with the powerful lesson of Ash Wednesday, it has
retained its ancient appeal to the penitential spirit of our
people. It has also acquired elements of popular piety which
we bishops would wish to encourage.
Accordingly, while appealing for greater development of
the understanding of the Lenten liturgy, as that of Advent, we
hope that the observance of Lent as the principal season of
penance in the Christian year will be intensified. This is
the more desirable because of new insights into the central
place in Christian faith of those Easter mysteries for the
understanding and enjoyment of which Lent is the ancient
penitential preparation.
Wherefore, we ask, urgently and prayerfully, that we, as
people of God, make of the entire lenten season a period of
special penitential observance. Following the instructions of
the Holy See, we declare that the obligation both to fast and
to abstain from meat, an obligation observed under a more
strict formality by our fathers in the faith, still binds on
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. No Catholic Christian will
lightly excuse himself from so hallowed an obligation on the
Wednesday which solemnly opens the Lenten season and on that
Friday called "Good" because on that day Christ suffered in
the flesh and died for our sins.
In keeping with the letter and spirit of Pope Paul's
constitution POENITEMINI we preserve for our dioceses the
tradition of abstinence from meat on each of the Fridays of
Lent, confident that no Catholic Christian will lightly hold
himself excused from this penitential practice.
..................................
Christ died for our salvation on Friday.
Gratefully remembering this, Catholic peoples from time
immemorial have set apart Friday for special penitential
observance by which they gladly suffer with Christ that they
may one day be glorified with him. This is the heart of the
tradition of abstinence from meat on Friday where that
tradition has been observed in the holy Catholic Church.
Changing circumstances, including economic, dietary, and
social elements, have made some of our people feel that the
renunciation of the eating of meat is not always and for
everyone the most effective means of practicing penance. Meat
was once an exceptional form of food; now it is commonplace.
Accordingly, since the spirit of penance primarily
suggests that we discipline ourselves in that which we enjoy
most, to many in our day abstinence from meat no longer
implies penance, while renunciation of other things would be
more penitential."
<continued in next message>
Sincerely in Christ,
Father Mateo
- Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit -
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