{"id":17237,"date":"2026-09-13T08:53:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T15:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=17237"},"modified":"2026-09-12T16:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T23:05:12","slug":"abstaining-from-meat-on-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=17237","title":{"rendered":"Abstaining from meat on Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In summary, let it not be said that by this action, implementing the spirit of renewal coming out of the Council, we have abolished Friday, repudiated the holy traditions of our fathers, or diminished the insistence of the Church on the fact of sin and the need for penance. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In 1966, the USCCB (US Catholic Council of Bishops) published their Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence<\/a>. Until that point, abstaining from meat on Fridays was a hard requirement that carried the penalty of sin. What many people took away from that document was this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Among the works of voluntary self-denial and personal penance which we especially commend to our people for the future observance of Friday, even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What many people failed to read was that the call to penance on Fridays IS still in effect – in fact moreso. They observed that abstinence from meat is much less of a penance than it used to be and that the gospel might indeed be better served by other forms of self-denial and atonement. They especially mention acts that Jesus speaks of when the final judgement will be laid upon the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It would bring great glory to God and good to souls if Fridays found our people doing volunteer work in hospitals, visiting the sick, serving the needs of the aged and the lonely, instructing the young in the Faith, participating as Christians in community affairs, and meeting our obligations to our families, our friends,our neighbors, and our community, including our parishes, with a special zeal born of the desire to add the merit of penance to the other virtues exercised in good works born of living faith.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So, in short, while the requirement for act of abstinence from meat on Fridays was lifted, we are still asked to do acts of penance that can still include abstinence from meat or other acts of atonement and penance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document makes an excellent point that by our acts of penance and atonement on Friday when Jesus died, it helps us to enter into and prepare us for the celebration of mass on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In summary, let it not be said that by this action, implementing the spirit of renewal coming out of the Council, we have abolished Friday, repudiated the holy traditions of our fathers, or diminished the insistence of the Church on the fact of sin and the need for penance. In 1966, the USCCB (US Catholic Council of Bishops) published their Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence. Until that point, abstaining from meat on Fridays was a hard requirement that carried…<\/p>\n

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