Photo credit: Mike Johnson - TheBusyBrain.com
The Bishops' Conference of England and Wales met last week in Leeds; here is a link to the Plenary Resolutions. The one which has attracted most comment re-establishes the practice of abstinence from meat on Fridays.
This resolution has been widely welcomed and I find it very encouraging. The reasons given by the Bishops are set out clearly:
The Bishops wish to re-establish the practice of Friday penance in the lives of the faithful as a clear and distinctive mark of their own Catholic identity. They recognise that the best habits are those which are acquired as part of a common resolve and common witness. It is important that all the faithful be united in a common celebration of Friday penance.I was interested to look up in some old catechetical books the sort of reasons that used to be given for Friday abstinence. A good, succinct summary is given in the Catechismus Catholicus of Cardinal Gasparri. I have the 8th edition which was published in 1932. This is divided into three principal parts: a catechism for children preparing for Holy Communion (a delightful summary in 25 questions), a catechism for older children, and a catechism for adults. In the adult section, question 257 runs as follows:
Curnam Ecclesia praescribit ieiunium et abstinentiam?Both of these aspects of penance are important and can be integrated into a well-rounded spiritual life. I agree with the Bishops that the distinctive mark of Catholic identity and the common witness are important. Especially at public occasions, it is good for Catholics to stand out in a small way by politely refusing meat on religious grounds. Some papers have referred to the new instruction as applying to "practising Catholics." Obviously it applies to all Catholics - those who have lapsed will now have one more mark of identity, a relatively easy one to fulfil, which can help them on the road back to the Church.
Ecclesia praescribit ieiunium et abstinentiam, ut fideles paenitentiam agant de peccatis commissis, praecaveant a futuris, atque ita efficacius vacent orationi.
So why does the Church prescribe fasting and abstinence?
The Church prescribes fasting and abstinence so that the faithful should do penance for sins committed, guard against future sins, and thus be more efficaciously free for prayer.
The older justification for abstinence is also one that we do well to remember. Essentially, any form of penance should be related to our need to repent from sin and to be converted to a deeper spiritual life. The point about being more open to prayer is one that was often emphasised by the Fathers and other great spiritual writers.
Some of the press coverage has said that the relaxation of Friday abstinence goes back to 1984. This refers to a provision made in response to the publication of the new Code of Canon Law where the general law requires Friday abstinence (Can 1251), though it may be fulfilled in other ways if the Bishops' conference decides. I well remember in my childhood that the law of Friday abstinence was mitigated. People used to quote a Bishop from the Third World who said "My people never even see meat." Somehow it was meant to follow from this that in richer countries, we should not worry about eating meat on Fridays. It never made sense to me.
Many Catholics have already returned to Friday abstinence voluntarily for some years: to have this once again a part of Catholic life generally is a welcome affirmation of their commitment to the faith.
One opportunity that I foresee relates to Catholic schools. Since schools are not open on Good Friday, Ash Wednesday is currently the only day when any dietary provision needs to be made - and it is easily forgotten. Although the law of abstinence applies only to those who have completed their fourteenth year (Canon 1252) it would certainly make sense for Catholic school kitchens not to serve meat on Fridays. Schools nowadays have plenty of Health Advice posters and class projects on healthy eating, so this should not be a problem.
The press coverage of such announcements is always worth looking at. After all, we are Christians, and Catholics at that, so there is no need to be terribly respectful of our particular World Religion. Many articles have a "Bearded Lady" approach - the underlying message is that pointy-hatted potentates have a new rule telling the faithful to do something silly.
The headline which I enjoyed most was Reuters: UK Catholics urged to shun meat on Fridays. It is not so much that it is factually wrong (hint: "Bishops of England and Wales"). Factual sloppiness is to be expected when it is only that Cafflick stuff (see also the Telegraph's mistaken reference to "red meat.") What I really liked was the word "shun." Maybe we could do with a bit of active and determined shunning. My idea would be to get the Lunch Club team to cook some sausages for after Mass on Friday and then have a guest Sergeant Major bawl out
"SHUN! - No you dozy bunch of brainless layabouts, I don't mean stand to attention, I mean SHUN THOSE SAUSAGES or I'll rip your arms off and beat you round the head with the soggy ends."That would be a dramatic bit of shunning.
Here is my favourite picture of shunning.
It is the statue of St Bruno in St Peter's Basilica. He is in fact shunning a Bishop's mitre but I have photoshopped it appropriately to illustrate his relative expertise in the meat-shun. In fact, he not only shunned meat on Fridays but on every other day of the week as well. A sort of power-shunner. [That's enough shunning - ED.]
20 comments:
Has to be one of the funniest posts ever. Thanks, Father! Needed that.
Hilarious! Is this the start of a full-blown Private Eyesation of the blog?
I hope the U.S. bishops follow suit soon! We lay Dominicans already shun meat every Friday of the year, so we can attest that this practice won't kill anybody.
And while we're at it, let's also bring back Ascension THURSDAY, and put an end to moving holy days of obligation to Sunday, even if it means we have to go to Mass TWO DAYS IN A ROW (which also won't kill us).
Praise Jesus for this most welcomed development in England/Wales.
May we in the USA, our Bishops, that is, be moved to do likewise.
Catholic identity and a sense of penance on Friday is most important in this day of widespread secularism and indifferentism.
A small move; yet significant!
Who woulda thunk it...coming from the Brits, that is :)!! Just kidding!
Surely abstinence from meat has been in force all these years, but with the option of doing something else instead if you couldn't or wouldn't give up meat? All that has happened is the confusing bit about options has been removed. A good thing, but this announcement is more in the nature of a reminder.
It is interesting to see how great the contrast is between eastern and western Europe in this regard. As with the blessing of foodstuffs on Easter Saturday, so abstention from meat on Fridays is the norm in eastern Slovakia, where my in-laws live. I mean, they are terrified at the thought of even touching food that might have been cooked in animal fat, for example.
Moreover, going back to the Easter point, they abstain from meat throughout Easter Saturday aswell, until a big breakfast on Easter Sunday.
I hope that the schools are compelled to take this seriously. It should apply to primary schools as well if we are talking about rebuilding an identity- we have to get in early and be consistent in message.
Parish priests will need to make a serious effort to make sure that people become aware of the new discipline.
When you wrote the bit about the sergeant major, were you thinking of Michael Palin in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life? "Don't stand there gawpin' as if yer'd never seen the 'And of God before!"
With regard to School lunches, we always had fish at lunchtime on Fridays, and never meat. And I went to School in Croydon twenty years ago which was not Catholic (but had been founded by an Archbishop of Canterbury post-reformation) - it was explained to me as simply traditional for Christians that you ate fish on Friday rather than nmeat...
This made me laugh aloud. Also I have been sneakily not eating meat on Fridays for some time (the rest of the family not being Catholic) and it makes me feel less bonkers for doing so! Thanks.
I hope that the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference will follow suit. My family haven't eaten meat on Friday for years now and don't find it a strain at all.
Is this the norm? I type my comment and then have to sign in and then have to type my comment again.
Great post, Father. Fish Friday is one of the things which defines Catholics in non-Catholic minds, even today.
When I was a Confession newbie, my elder sister insisted (there was a lot of that) that we had to confess we'd had minced meat on a Friday. Duly done and penance exacted, I realised some years later that what we'd had was mincemeat tarts.
I've already gone back to meatless Fridays and have continued the Lenten meatless Wednesdays as well. Of course, those are the days I could kill for a bacon sarnie. 'Shun!
I hope that schools observe this as a penance for sins, not as solidarity with social causes.
2 things. 1) In the past few years I've largely abstained from meat on a Friday. Simply, because it can be easy to forget to do something on a Friday as penance if not in the habit. 2) HOWEVER,I am not keen on this business of making it, per se, be the sole penance one should be allowed to do. In other words, even 'back in the day' the hispanics got an affirmative action pass from their bishops. So some rich ranchero Mexican could be chowing down on his carne asada quite contentedly under no threat of commiting a sin, while Joe Sixpack from Appalachia who said 'the hell with this rule, it's Friday, and there are only hotdogs in the fridge, I'm going to eat one' was considered to have committed a sin. Either something is a sin or not. It shouldn't depend on where you are standing. Encourage by all means - but to hold this up as being sinful if something breached is not right. Count me in as someone whom will be LESS likely to follow the no-meat-on-Friday rule because of this! [OUTSIDE of times of Lent. IN lent, as far as I am aware, the rule is the same for everyone.]
I'm sorry, Father: adopting any kind of ascetical practice as a mark of "identity", not scrupling to draw attention to oneself by public exhibitions of abstinence (however "polite") is flat contrary to Scripture and the tradition of he Fathers. This is not a good reason to fast or abstain, but the very worst possible.
Distinguo. Abstaining publicly in order to tell others that you are more virtuous is wrong. Abstaining publicly to give witness to the Catholic faith is a good thing.
Either something is a sin or not. It shouldn't depend on where you are standing.
Right -- but the particular sin in question is not eating meat as such, but disobeying the local authorities' determination of how, concretely, the faithful are to practice the generic divine command to do penance.
I was so happy to hear this news, and hope the U.S. bishops will follow suit. I fast and abstain every Friday and offer it up for priests. Since I *love* *love* *love* my meat, I think about God a lot on Fridays! :-D
(Very nice pic of meat you posted, BTW, Father, my mouth is watering as I type!)
Respectfully, Father, I think the distinction is a false one.It stands up, perhaps, only in the case of someone who is already a saint,in which case it is already redundant because the only valid and acceptable witness to Christ for any of us is a life transfigured by grace and characterised essentially by love and compassion. In the absence of this transfigurement, making a thing of having fish and chips instead of sausage and chips, because it happens to be Friday, as a mark of "identity", is (IMO) simply delusional and absurd. Even the Desert Fathers preferred to eat whatever they were given, including flesh meat even on fast days, such was their horror of appearing to be "other" than their neighbour.
"Love your enemies; do good to those that hate you". That, and only that, is the kind of "witness" that counts for anything. We are abjured absolutely to do all other things "in secret".
In Seville there is a wonderful painting of St Bruno and his monks at table. Their bailiff is offering them a joint of meat. The story goes that St Bruno, not wishing to upset this kind gesture, said he would discuss the matter with his chapter and let him know. A month later he summoned the bailiff who told him that the meat had gone off so the problem was solved.
Back in the fifties I remember staying in the guest house of the Grande Chartreuse where we had plenty of meat as apparently that was their way of disposing of unwanted gifts. We also had a glass of the green stuff at every meal with some elixir vegetal (90%) before bed.
Nicolas Bellord
Anagnostis - all witness ultimately derives from love of God and neighbour; but witness has been given by countless saints, martyrs and ordinary good people, by demonstrating their faith publicly in various ways. The scriptural story of Eleazar is a good example.
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