Posted on 11/18/2012 3:18:25 PM PST by NYer
Want to feel old? Talk to anyone under the age of 50 about meatless Fridays. Odds are, they will have no memory of it. They will have no knowledge of why Catholics were called “mackerel snappers,” nor will they laugh at tired George Carlin routines about going to hell for eating a hot dog.
And they sure as heck won’t know why many restaurant chains still have their fish specials on Fridays.
But for all you youngsters, you might get ready: Friday abstinence may be coming back.
Once upon a time, children, Catholics abstained from meat on Fridays as a small act of penance. Not just Fridays during Lent, but all Fridays. Friday was the day of the Lord’s death on the cross, and throughout the year, not just on Good Friday, Catholics would commemorate that day in a special way. One still finds this practice in religious communities like monasteries, and the British bishops restored the practice last year.
In general, however, meatless Fridays disappeared after the Second Vatican Council, despite the fact that canon law (Canon 1251) still asks us to abstain from meat or other food on Fridays subject to the requirements of the local conference of bishops.
The irony is that of all the many changes when the Church windows were opened to the fresh wind of aggiornamento, this one may have been one of the more significant. It was a small act of penance that was thoroughly integrated into everyone’s lives.
Of course, not everyone did it with full consciousness of what it was intended to commemorate. For many, it just became a rule, and junior theologians like young George Carlin loved to debate whether eating a hot dog on Friday led one straight down the brimstone path to hell.
Yet when Friday abstinence was done away with, it had a rather oversized impact on Catholic identity. It turned out it was a significant public acknowledgement of one’s faith, like ashes on the forehead. The bishops hadn’t meant for such small acts of penance to go away. They had intended to open up other options for sacrifice. But, of course, they weren’t.
And all those junior theologians? They wondered why one day you could go to hell for eating meat on Friday and the next week it was no big deal. Ultimately, this was a case when punishments became more important than catechesis, and what had a historic and pastoral value became instead a rule for a rule’s sake. Then, over-emphasizing the penalties was compensated for by abandoning the practice all together, and neither response was right.
However, the Church may get a chance to try again. In his speech to his fellow bishops Nov. 13, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, suggested that it might be time to return to the practice of Friday abstinence.
“The work of our Conference during the coming year,” he said, “includes reflection on re-embracing Friday as a particular day of penance, including the possible reinstitution of abstinence on all Fridays of the year, not just during Lent.”
Now to be fair, he did not specifically mention giving up meat. And, of course, one could give up television screens, or dessert, or a hundred other little pleasures we all enjoy. But I hope we do go back to those meatless Fridays. There is something to be said for Catholics knowing they are all in it together. This time, maybe we will not put the focus on the threats or the punishments, but use this as a teaching moment and a positive reinforcement of our Catholic identity.
My real hope is that we will also keep in mind why we are doing it: To remember Someone who gave up a lot more for us.
I went to a Southern Baptist college, and WE had fish on Fridays. We crabbed (bad pun) about it to the lady who ran the cafeteria. She explained that we were being sensitive to our Catholic “friends” who attended our school. So we went to Der Wienerschnitzel or McDonald’s for lunch, and out for Mexican food for dinner. If you couldn’t afford to go, several would always chip in for your food. We told the cafeteria lady that WE were being sensitive to our Southern Baptist brethrens’ need for tacos and beef enchiladas.
Does one nee to be told to abstain from meat on friday? I would think that ya could do it without “mother church” telling you to ???
I remember those days, and some of the Friday dinners. Fish sticks, canned salmon patties, grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, or the rare fish fry from one of the Polish bars in town. A simpler time.
Stop worrying, you're allowed to eat fish on Friday
Having a jar where you can put in a little money every Friday could be a good way to honor the sacrifice. The money could be donated to the church or a charity.
“Abstinence from eating meat”. Glad that was clarified, was getting worried.
I’ve been doing this for a while now....it focuses on what happened that Good Friday.
I remember it too, and loved the fish on Fridays at school. It was really good. I never knew the reason for it, but looked forward to the Friday fish.
I've been trying to keep Fridays meatless for the past few years. Lots of tuna fish sandwiches for lunches these past few years.
I am by no means an expert. A condensed version would be that many church traditions were relaxed (like no meat Friday) or changed (mass went from Latin to native language for example. This was attempt to ‘modernize’ the church, make it more accessible, and make it more popular/attractive to the modern western world. IMHO, a byproduct of this has been a new cadre of priests and other leaders who cater more to popular sentiment than adhere to absolute truths.
I was raised Catholic and I never understood it either. It probably made more sense when red meat was a luxury for most people but now days and for many years now, fish, even canned salmon or tuna is relatively more expensive compared to say ground beef. I also never understood why eating shrimp on Friday was any sort of penance either – I’d much rather eat steamed shrimp than the hockey puck hamburgers on Wonder Bread that my mother used to make or …(shudders) liver and onions!
I watched a show earlier today on the History Channel about life in Medieval Europe – “Going Medieval”. For most common people red meat was a luxury, only the landed nobility could hunt big game (deer, wild boar) on their own lands, and the penalties for poaching were severe. Most common folk, except for on very special occasions didn’t eat much red meat and when they did, it was mostly small game like rabbit or mutton, that was if they were fortunate to have any land on which to raise lamb. Fish, especially river fish like Pike was much a more common and affordable protein staple of the poor and working class.
I’m fond of both. Ate them every Friday in the school cafeteria when I was a child and didn’t feel like I was missing a thing.
As a kid I actually looked forward to Friday as that meant some of my favorite dinners/comfort foods that I still like today – fish sticks with mac and cheese and stewed tomatoes or grilled cheese and tomato soup or tuna salad subs, which BTW were the only thing my high school cafeteria made that was worth buying – Fridays the only day I didn’t brown bag it.
Seems to me that it would be more penitent and do more good to fast and give the savings to the poor.
Some Catholic churches do that on Good Friday. I also remember fasting on Good Friday when I was a teenager – little kids were not expected to fast.
It’s my understanding that the Friday sacrifice never really left. We’ve still been required to make some sort of sacrifice each week ... whether fasting or some other sort.
There were also some days when it was permitted to eat meat at the main meal but it was a sin to eat meat at any of the other meals. I don't think too many people really understood the rules on that.
After he had been there for a while, a friend visited him and asked if he had any success in getting the cannibals to stop eating people.
"No," he said. "They're still cannibals. But now they only eat fishermen on Fridays."
You wrote:
“The real reason for ‘’meatless’’Fridays for Catholics is to commemorate Phillip the Second driving the Moors(muslims) out of Spain(Andalusia) Friday being the day the worthless Saracen bastards go to the mosque.”
No. Catholics didn’t eat meat on Fridays for centuries BEFORE the expulsion of Muslims from Spain.
If I recall from my long-gone Catholic youth, it wasn’t the eating of the meat that was the mortal sin, but the intentional disobedience of the rules. I always found it silly as did most of my youthful friends, most of which are basic lapsed Catholics today.
My husband and I always do. Of course, we don’t really care whether anyone likes it or not (and we don’t eat out much either but oh well lol). We also always abstain from meat on Fridays but we’ve done that for quite a while, and I did for years in my other life as Orthodox.
One thing I never understood about the meatless Fridays, was that eating fish is no sacrifice at all. In fact I prefer a lot of fish to just about anything.
When I was in grad school, the only time I would eat in the cafeteria (I lived off campus)was on Fridays because they had several kinds of fish including shrimp. Yummy.
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