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> Subject: Friday Abstinence
"For these and related reasons, the Catholic bishops of the
United States, far from downgrading the traditional penitential
observance of Friday, and motivated precisely by the desire to
give the spirit of penance a greater vitality, especially on
Fridays, the day that Jesus died, urge our Catholic people
henceforth to be guided by the following norms:
1. Friday itself remains a special day of penitential
observance throughout the year, a time when those who seek
perfection will be mindful of their personal sins and the
sins of mankind which they are called upon to help expiate
in union with Christ Crucified;
2. Friday should be in each week something of what Lent is in
the entire year. For this reason we urge all to prepare for
that weekly Easter that comes with each Sunday be freely
making of every Friday a day of self-denial and
mortification in prayerful remembrance of the passion of
Jesus Christ;
3. 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 AS BINDING
UNDER PAIN OF SIN, as the sole prescribed means of
observing Friday, we give first place to abstinence from
flesh meat. We do so in the hope that the Catholic
community will ordinarily continue to abstain from meat by
free choice as formerly we did in obedience to Church law.
Our expectation is based on the following considerations:
a. We shall thus freely and out of love for Christ
Crucified show our solidarity with the generations of
believers to whom this practice frequently became,
especially in times of persecution and of great poverty,
no mean evidence of fidelity in Christ and his Church.
b. We shall thus also remind ourselves that as Christians,
although immersed in the world and sharing its life, we
must preserve a saving and necessary difference from the
spirit of the world. Our deliberate, personal
abstinence from meat, more especially because no longer
required by law, will be an outward sign of inward
spiritual values that we cherish.
Every Catholic Christian understand that the fast and
abstinence regulations admit of change, unlike the
commandments and precepts of that unchanging divine moral law
which the Church must today and always defend as immutable.
This said, we emphasize that OUR PEOPLE ARE HENCEFORTH FREE
FROM THE OBLIGATION, TRADITIONALLY BINDING, UNDER PAIN OF SIN
IN WHAT PERTAINS TO FRIDAY ABSTINENCE, EXCEPT AS NOTED ABOVE
FOR LENT. We stress this so that no scrupulosity will enter
into examinations of conscience, confessions, or personal
decisions on this point.
Perhaps we should warn those who decide to keep the Friday
abstinence for reasons of personal piety and special love that
they must not pass judgment on those who elect to substitute
other penitential observances. Friday, please God, will
acquire among us other forms of penitential witness which may
become as much a part of the devout way of life in the future
as Friday abstinence from meat. In this connection we have
foremost in mind the modern need for self-discipline in the
use of stimulants and for a renewed emphasis on the virtue of
temperance, especially in the use of alcoholic beverages.
It would bring greater 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 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.
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Sincerely in Christ,
Father Mateo
- Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit -
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