Archive:
Should Fridays be Days of Mandated
Abstinence and/or Fast?

The call was to revisit the question of abstinence from meat on Fridays with specific focus on combating the culture of death — abortion, euthanasia, drugs and other attacks against human life and human dignity. Scripture was quoted: "This kind can be cast out only by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:21).

How many Catholics realize that Fridays are considered penitential days? When I was a child meatless Fridays were a badge of Catholicism. That long-time tradition was mitigated in 1966 when, inspired by the Second Vatican Council, the Church adopted an educate and trust approach. Here is the resultant legislation: "The Church ... invites everyone to accompany the inner conversion of the spirit with the voluntary exercise of external acts of penitence. ... By Divine Law all the faithful are required to do penance. ... Abstinence is to be observed on every Friday which does not fall on a day of obligation. ... It is the task of Episcopal Conferences to ... substitute abstinence and fast wholly or in part with other forms of penance especially works of charity and the exercises of piety ..." (Paenitemini, Pope Paul VI, Feb. 17, 1966).

On Nov. 18, 1966, acting on that papal directive, in a Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence, the bishops of the NCCB decreed: "Friday itself remains a special day of penitential observance throughout the year (#22). Among the works of voluntary self denial and personal penance ... we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat. We do so in the hope the Catholic community will ordinarily continue to abstain from meat by free choice as formerly ...(#24)." The media, looking as always for a story, announced that meatless Fridays were out. Few people, it seems, read the documentation. Instantaneous consensus seemed to be that if meatless Fridays were no longer an obligation, don't bother with them.

On May 3, 1983, in issuing the highly publicized Peace Pastoral (The Challenge of Peace), the bishops of this country stated: "As a tangible sign of our need and desire to do penance we, for the cause of peace, commit ourselves to fast and abstinence on each Friday of the year. We call upon our people voluntarily to do penance on Friday by eating less food and by abstaining from meat." This was an attempt to give specific focus to meatless Fridays.

The Code of Canon Law provides insights:

• C 1250: "All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days ..."


• C 1251: "Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the Bishops' Conference is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities ..."


• C 1253: "It is for the Bishops' Conference to determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence and to substitute in whole or in part for fast and abstinence other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety."

Discussion which followed presentation of the basic proposal focused on the penitential nature of Fridays, the erosion of the sense of that penitential nature and the opportunities that Friday presents to generate a strong sense of Catholic identity.

The body voted to send the proposal to study. It will be interesting to see what emerges.

Reading about this in USA TODAY, someone wrote to inform me that he and his wife forego meat on Friday as a sign of prayer and opposition to abortion. He does not favor telling Catholics they must abstain from meat, however. In his judgment legislation would mean that he no longer would be doing something because he wanted to do it, but because a rule was in place. If such a rule were implemented, he warned, he probably wouldn't continue his practice of meatless Fridays.

The letter went on to suggest that Church leaders need to limit their compulsion to be "control-freaks." Trust Catholics to be good, knowledgeable, Christian people capable of making the correct decisions, he urged. Suggest meaningful sacrifices so Catholics can choose to practice them according to what they feel will make meaningful prayer, the writer said. The bottom line was, as I read the intervention, don't shove things down our throat. We are tired of "do it because I said so." Church leadership should give priority to education and trust while backing off legislation.

Some, no doubt, would observe that approach obviously didn't work back in 1966 when Paul VI issued Paenitemini, in 1983 with the Peace Pastoral, and isn't likely to work now.

It was stressful to think that some look upon rules as a mandate to "do this" in stupefied numbness rather than as an articulation of expectations rooted in identity with Jesus Christ and his values. As with all ordered societies, the Church has expectations, some of which are highlighted via sanctions. We have Ten Commandments because God has expectations. Jesus underscored the need for that when he said: "Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven" (Matt: 16-19).

Humans tend to minimize. I abstain from meat on Friday. Perhaps you do also. Most people, however, seem to have lost contact with the penitential nature of Fridays. The value of fasting has become eroded a great deal as well. There are times when more is needed than mere recommendation. It's part of the human condition.

Is the observance of Fridays as penitential days an instance where legislation is needed? What would your reaction be if Fridays were declared days of mandatory abstinence and/or fast?

A sampling of opinion on this topic might be interesting. I invite your input via letters to the editor of The Catholic Moment. Would you welcome emphasizing the penitential nature of Fridays by mandating fast and/or abstinence? Which? Would joining your fellow Catholics in abstinence from meat on Fridays or fasting enhance your sense of Catholic identity? Your relationship with Jesus Christ? Do you see abstinence/fast of Fridays as a meaningful way to combat the culture of death?