Can the Pope Decide a Sin is No Longer a Sin (Like Eating Meat on Fridays)? (Catholic Caucus)

Aleteia ^ | April 13, 2015 | JOHN MARTIGNONI

[piusv]

As literacy rates increased, Catholics began to study more theology and questioned the rationale behind these directives.

Do you even realize how Protestant this sounds?

I doubt either of my great great grandparents would have been intellectually able to grasp the notion of choice when their entire life was spent in poverty and self sacrifice raising 5 children in a ghetto where discrimination and crime abounded. Hence, the Church approach of telling them what to do.

This comes off incredibly insulting to all of the faithful Catholics, including many saints and martyrs, who lived under the "old" rules. Of course, they could intellectually understand choice. They just didn't think it was owed to them because they were "now adults".

[ELS]

There is the letter of the law and then there is the spirit of the law. Clearly, having a luxurious dinner doesn’t really follow the spirit of the law/discipline. Personally, I usually have tuna salad or go all vegetarian on Fridays. I am amused by the “meatless Monday’s” pushed by environmentalist types.