> FROM: Jon Guidry
# 960120.01
> Date: 20 Jan 96
> Subject: Question
>
> Father Mateo:
>
> I had a friend send this question to me in e-mail, I replied back
> to her, but she would be interested in an answer from a priest also.
> mm> About Catholosism, I'm Catholic too, and proud of it.
> mm> However there are many ideas where my religion and I disagree.
> mm> For example, I believe seafood is meat and should not be an
> mm> exception to meat fasting during lent or other times. This law
> mm> was changed because of economic problems long ago in a port in
> mm> Italy. But since the Pope at the time said it we are all suppose
> mm> to obey. The only problem is that I believe the Pope is only
> mm> superior to any Christian because of the holy life he leads, and
> mm> the popes many years ago did'nt lead very holy lives. So the
> mm> disisions they made, In my eyes, are invalid. What do you think?
> Thanks!!! > Jon
Dear Jon,
Please remember, in my answers to your question (or rather your friend's
question), that we are forbidden by Our Lord to judge another person's
interior dispositions (Luke 6:37); but we can and must judge what is
OBJECTIVELY right or wrong in the words and actions we observe (Luke
12:57). I will try to be objective in what I say here, remembering that
the Second Vatican Council requires me (and you) to be faithful in
announcing the truth and vigorous in defending it, while treating with
love, prudence, and patience those who are in error or ignorance with
regard to the faith (cf. Declaration on Religious Liberty, sec. 14).
If I am tempted to disagree with any teaching or practice of my Catholic
religion, such temptation is a challenge to prayer and further research.
Only the Holy Spirit can enlighten, guide, and strengthen my understanding
of my religion and increase my humility, obedience, and faith. Reading and
study of religious matters without constant prayer ("Lord, that I may see!"
- Luke 10:51) is useless for salvation: "all of us have knowledge -
knowledge inflates with pride" (1st Corinthians 8:1). With prayer and
study, difficulties become a path to understanding and stronger faith.
But disagreements which are allowed to harden into positive doubt or denial
of Catholic doctrine easily lead to weakening of faith or its final loss.
And such doubt or denial is certainly sinful.
Your friend's disagreements are twofold. One is in a matter of Church
discipline: how shall we define "flesh meat" in applying the law of
abstinence? This is a relatively insignificant problem. The other
disagreement is of enormous importance: does personal sin in a pope render
his pastoral actions invalid? Well take these two disagreements up one by
one.
Our Lord himself bore prophetic witness that, after his return to his
Father, his disciples would need to fast (Matthew 9:15). To be a disciple
of Christ requires daily self-denial (Luke 9:23). Christ then left it to
the Church to determine the specifics of fasting and abstinence and other
matters of Christian behavior (cf. Acts 15:19-30). Christians therefore
have the duty of obeying the directions given us by our rightful superiors
in the Church. Canon 212, 1 reads: "Christ's faithful, conscious of their
own responsibility, are bound to show Christian obedience to what the
sacred Pastors, who represent Christ, declare as teachers of the faith and
prescribe as rulers of the Church."
In Romans 14:1-23, St. Paul as bishop and apostle legislates about food, just
as the gathering of all the apostles had done in Acts 15:20. The tradition
of abstaining from meat and of fasting is the working out of Christ's
teaching on the necessity of self-denial for Christian discipleship and
eternal salvation (Matt. 10:38 f., 16:24 f.). Christ himself fasted (Matt.
4:2) and taught the necessity of fasting (Matt. 6:16 ff.; Mark 2:18-20,
9:29 with variant reading). After Christ's ascension, the apostles
practised fasting (Acts 13:2, 14:23) and the earliest Christians practiced
both fasting and abstinence. The 1st century document known as the Didache
enjoined weekly fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Friday abstinence from meat in memory of the Passion and Death of Our Lord
on a Friday was and is common in the Eastern and Western Church.
THROUGHOUT HISTORY, THE PARTICULARS OF CHURCH LAW AND PRACTICE HAVE VARIED
ACCORDING TO DIFFERENT TIMES AND PLACES.
In our time, Pope Paul VI reorganized our laws of fasting and abstinence in
his apostolic constitution "Poenitemini" of February 17, 1966. This
reorganization entered the new Code of Canon Law in its canons 1249 - 1253,
which I quote for you here:
Can. 1249 -- All Christ's faithful are obliged by divine law, each in
his or her own way, to do penance. However, so that all may be joined
together in a certain common practice of penance, days of penance are
prescribed. On these days Christ's faithful are in a special manner to
devote themselves to prayer, to engage in works of piety and charity,
and to deny themselves, by fulfilling their obligations more faithfully
and especially by observing the fast and abstinence which the following
canons prescribe.
Can. 1250 -- The days and times of penance for the universal Church are
each Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.
Can. 1251 -- Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined
by the Bishops' Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a
solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be
observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Can. 1252 -- The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their
fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their
majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls
and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are
not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true
meaning of penance.
Can. 1253 -- The Bishops' Conference can determine more particular ways
in which fasting and abstinence are to be observed. In place of
abstinence or fasting it can substitute, in whole or in part, other
forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.
In the dioceses of the United States by virtue of Canon 1253, it is usual
for the bishops to modify Canon 1251, excusing us from Friday abstinence
EXCEPT on the Fridays of Lent. (Many Catholics, however, freely choose to
abstain from meat on all Fridays of the year.)
As the Church, by virtue of her divine mandate to guide the faithful along
the way of salvation, has always exercised the power of enacting
regulations about fast and abstinence, so she also has and uses the power
of changing these regulations. Every legislative authority can both make
laws and, when necessary, change them.
Our law of fasting and abstinence does not consider seafood as flesh meat.
Catholics who eat seafood on days of abstinence are obedient to the law.
The Church has the right to determine the meaning of her own law and to
change that law when necessary.
If your friend wants to abstain from seafood she does so as a private
penance. The Church approves of private penances as long as they are done
within reason and solely for the love of God. But if they are done out of
self-will, pride, and desire to contemn others and the Church, they are not
virtuous.
I shall write about the second and more important disagreement in my next
message.
Sincerely in Christ,
Father Mateo
-- Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit --
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