![]() What our forefathers held sacred should remain sacred to us in an effort to preserve our catholicity, not only with ourselves but with our ancestors who now see God in Heaven. Sheen once remarked, “It is a long-established principle of the Church never to completely drop from her public worship any ceremony, object or prayer which once occupied a place in that worship.” The same may be said for matters concerning either Holy Days of Obligation or fast days. Yet, even with such a distinction, the Church has historically been wise to change disciplines only very slowly and carefully. As the Scriptures affirm, it is not what goes into one’s mouth that defiles a man but that disobedience which comes from the soul (cf. Michael Müller remarks in his Familiar Explanation of Christian Doctrine from 1874: “It is not the food, but the disobedience that defiles a man.” To eat meat on a forbidden day unintentionally, for instance, is no sin. It is the act of disobedience which is evil.Īs Fr. We do not abstain from meat on Fridays, for instance, because the meat is unclean or evil. In the observance of the two precepts of attending Holy Mass on prescribed days and fasting and abstaining on commanded days, we obey them because the Church has the power granted by Christ to command such things. Lawful authorities in the Church do have the power to change these practices. The days of obligation and the days of penance are matters of discipline, not matters of dogma. While no authority in the Church may change or alter any established dogmas of the Faith, the discipline of both Holy Days of Obligation and fast days may change. ![]() Where has the rhythm and rhyme of the Catholic life gone? Today, the number of fasting days in the Universal Church, including in the United States, is sadly only two: Good Friday and Ash Wednesday. The notion of “partial abstinence,” introduced under Pope Benedict XIV in 1741, was also removed along with nearly all fast days. Per the 1983 Code of Canon Law, fasting and complete abstinence are required only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Friday penance is required per these laws on all Fridays of the year except on Solemnities, a dramatic change from the previous exception being only on Holy Days of Obligation. ![]() Per the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the age of fasting was changed to begin at 18 – previously it was 21 – and to still conclude at midnight when an individual completes his 59th birthday. The 1983 Code of Canon Law largely took Paul VI’s apostolic constitution, aside from the modification of the age at which fasting binds. “Even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we … hope that the Catholic community will ordinarily continue to abstain from meat by free choice as formerly we did in obedience to church law.”Īnd finally, fasting on all weekdays of Lent was “strongly recommended” but no longer obligatory under penalty of sin. bishops removed the long-established precept of requiring Friday penance. Abstinence on all the other Fridays throughout the year was “especially recommended” and the faithful who did choose to eat meat were directed to perform an alternative penance on those Fridays outside of Lent, even though the U.S. Abstinence was made obligatory only on all the Fridays of Lent, except Solemnities (i.e., First Class Feasts), on Ash Wednesday, and on Good Friday. The NCCB then issued a statement on November 18, 1966. Paenitemini maintained the traditional practice that “abstinence is to be observed on every Friday which does not fall on a day of obligation.” ![]() Additionally, the obligation of fasting on the Ember Days and on the remaining Vigils was abolished. Paenitemini allowed the commutation of the Friday abstinence to an act of penance at the discretion of the local ordinaries, and gave authority to the episcopal conferences on how the universal rules would be applied in their region.Ībstinence, which previously began at age 7, was modified to begin at age 14. Its principles were later incorporated into the 1983 Code of Canon Law. Shortly after the close of the Second Vatican Council, on February 17, 1966, Pope Paul VI published an apostolic constitution on fasting and abstaining, called Paenitemini.
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