AboutFr. Michael Expertise A traditional Catholic priest, who provides forthright answers to questions FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF TRADITIONAL CATHOLICISM (not the New Order) on topics pertaining to TRADITIONAL Roman Catholicism, including theology, the Bible, Church history, the Latin language, liturgy (especially the Traditional Latin Mass), and music (especially Gregorian chant), and current events in the Catholic Church.
Question During lent we do not eat meat on Fridays, but as a child growing up every Friday was meatless. How did this meatless Friday come to be? What was the reason for not eating meat only on Fridays?
Answer Explicit mention is made of the practice of abstaining from fleshmeat
on Fridays in a document from the end of the first century A.D., the “Didache
of the Apostles,” as well as by St. Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian in
the third century. The perpetual tradition of the Church is clear beyond
possibility of mistake on this matter, and from the earliest times the
Christians at certain seasons denied themselves fleshmeat and wine, or even
restricted themselves to bread and water (Concil. Laod. Canon 50).
The Friday abstinence was the universal custom from the very
beginning, as Friday was dedicated to the memory of the Passion of Our Lord,
as a day on which we should make a special effort to practice penance. It is
in recognition of the fact that Christ suffered and died, and gave up his
human flesh and life for our sins on a Friday that Catholics do not eat
fleshmeat on Fridays.
By our abstinence on Friday, we recall, and participate in some small
way, in the great sacrifice of Our Lord for us on that Good Friday. Moreover,
by abstaining from fleshmeat, we give up what is, on the whole, the most
pleasant as well as the most nourishing food, and so make satisfaction for
the temporal punishment due to sin even when its guilt has been forgiven.
The law of abstinence now forbids only fleshmeat and gravies and soup
made from fleshmeat. All other kinds of food are allowed (CIC [1917], Canons
1250-1254). All persons over seven years of age must abstain. This means
that they may not take fleshmeat, meat gravy, or meat soup at all on days of
complete abstinence, which are all Fridays (except on holydays of
obligation), Ash Wednesday, Holy Saturday (until noon), and the Vigils of the
Immaculate Conception and Christmas. By the decree of the Sacred
Congregation of the Council, December 3, 1959, abstinence on the Vigil of
Christmas may, at the option of the individual, be anticipated on December
23. They may take meat, but only at the principal meal, on days of partial
abstinence, which are Ember Wednesdays and Saturdays, and the Vigils of
Pentecost and of All Saints' Day.
The abstinence from fleshmeat is an ecclesiastical law with
associations to Divine Positive Law, as expressed, for example, in St. Paul's
First Epistle to the Corinthians (9:25) and Second Epistle to the Corinthians
(6:5). It has long obliged under pain of mortal sin, since Pope Nicholas I
in the ninth century. Pope Innocent III at the beginning of the 13th century
confirmed this teaching, and Pope Alexander VII anathematized those who would
minimize the character of a breach as only venially sinful. Traditional
Catholics know full well that they have a grave obligation of maintaining
this immemorial practice since the Apostles. They can and should confess a
knowing and wilfull breach as a mortal sin.
The Church does not forbid certain kinds of food on the ground that
they are impure (the Jewish belief, disputed by St. Paul in 1 Timothy 4:4).
The abstinence required is a reasonable one and is not exacted from those who
it would injure in health or incapacitate for their ordinary duties.
Abstinence is a means, not an end, and is meritorious only insofar as it
proceeds from faith and love of God (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica,
IIa IIae, q. 146, a. 1). Abstinence promotes our spiritual health by
enabling us to subdue our flesh (1 Corinthians 9:27).
