Dear Father: My son just entered the seminary, and now he is telling our family that we’re supposed to be eating fish on Fridays. I told him that Vatican II got rid of all that stuff. Can you please help me find information to show him that he’s wrong? – Sydney
Dear Sydney:
Oh, those pesky seminarians! Why can’t they just leave us alone?
Actually, you should be thanking your son, although he’s not entirely correct about the necessity of eating only fish on Fridays. We must do some penance on most Fridays, one form of which is to abstain from meat. Vatican II did not get rid of that.
Vatican II did not say that we must absolutely eat fish on Fridays, or, to my knowledge, did the Church ever say that we had to eat fish. In the history of the Church, fish was the protein substitute for meat. But it was always perfectly fine to eat a vegetarian meal in place of meat, especially on Fridays of Lent.
The Church, our venerable Mother, like all mothers, has continually urged her children to eat carefully. Sometimes that means she has told us how to eat on certain days: less on some and to feel free to have a party on other days.
Her insistence on guiding our diets is because she knows that our true end is to gain the prize of heaven. It’s a long journey that we are making together to heaven, and journeys require proper nutrition. Consider the athlete. Every athlete knows that there are times to eat certain foods and times to avoid certain foods to be fit to win an earthly prize.
Some days require a party, such as our Lord’s birthday (Christmas) and His resurrection from the dead (Easter). Other days require that we hold back. Each week we limit our diets by abstaining from meat, and sometimes we fast by limiting the amount of food.
We use bodily abstentions and fasting to train our souls, lest they become bloated (like our bodies) with excessive concerns about earthly things. Just as getting to heaven is both pre- and post-Vatican II, so is abstinence and fasting.
In fact, it was a post-Vatican II teaching from Pope St. Paul VI (1966) that deals with the importance of fasting and abstinence. Titled Paenitemini (Be Converted), the pope used the image of our pilgrimage from this earthly city to our heavenly homeland. Our pilgrimage means that we turn our faces upward toward our goal and away from our downward focus on affairs of this world.
That’s what conversion means: to change, and this change involves a “letting go” of what keeps us earthbound. That’s the joy of penance. We let go of a lesser good to attain a greater good. Like good spiritual athletes, we watch our diet by fasting and abstinence; we build spiritual muscle by exercising with prayer and spiritual reading; we become spiritually lean and fit by caring for the poor.
Perhaps you thought that Vatican II got rid of abstinence from meat on Fridays on account of the relaxation that Pope St. Paul VI allowed. He never, however, abolished the necessity of doing penance on Fridays of the entire year.
In the United States, our bishops have insisted that we do penance of some sort on Fridays, even outside of Lent. While it used to be sinful to eat meat on Fridays (prior to 1966), that is no longer the case. The sin was not a matter of merely forgetting about abstaining. A person committed a sin by eating meat on Fridays out of contempt for the regulation. Contempt for holy things is always evil.
Did removing the strict requirement go too far? Some might argue that the pope and bishops gave us too much freedom. But I think everyone recognizes that it’s better to offer up sufferings out of love rather than being forced by law. When your seminarian son comes home for vacation, wouldn’t you rather that he offers to take out the garbage voluntarily and with love rather than by force?
It seems that the majority of Catholics have forgotten that we are still supposed to offer up some form of penance every Friday, whether by abstaining from meat or by mortifying ourselves in some other way. On Fridays that are solemnities or great feasts, we suspend our penance for that day. If, for example, when the Immaculate Conception falls on a Friday, we celebrate and put aside our special mortifications. Catholic calendars usually indicate these days.
Perhaps I will be accused of “turning back the clock,” but I really believe that we need penance now more than ever. The world isn’t getting any better, but we might help turn things around if we beseech heaven with works of mortification. The call to fasting is a constant throughout the Scriptures. Our Lord Jesus especially calls us to repent and to conform our lives to His cross.
I think that’s what your seminarian son is probably wanting for you and your family.
