Expert: Fr. Michael - 3/3/2007

Question
Why do catholics not eat meat on fridays during lent? What type of meat is allowed to be consumed?
Thank-you for your time

Answer
The grave obligation of abstinence from fleshmeat pertains not just to the Friday of Lent, but to all Fridays of the year.

       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).