As most Catholics know, Catholics are generally required to abstain from meat on Fridays during the season of Lent as an act of self-denial in honor of the death of Jesus. In this short post, I want to briefly walk through the Church's laws about abstinence from meat on Fridays and share why this Friday is an exception. First, here's what the Church's Code of Canon Law says:

Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal 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 [i.e., age 14]. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority [i.e., age 18], until the beginning of their sixtieth year [i.e., age 59]. 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.

You will notice that the universal law of the Church, even today, says that abstinence from meat is to be observed on “all Fridays” not just Fridays in Lent. Older Catholics will recall that Catholics used to abstain from meat every single Friday, but most of us today are only familiar with the requirement to abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent. This is because canon law allows national bishops' conferences to adapt the laws of fasting:

Can. 1253 The conference of bishops can determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence as well as substitute other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety, in whole or in part, for abstinence and fast.

In 1966 the National Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a pastoral statement for Catholics in the USA that removed the obligation to abstain from meat on Fridays throughout the year, but maintained the requirement to abstain on Fridays during Lent:

23. 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 by freely making of every Friday a day of self-denial and mortification in prayerful remembrance of the passion of Jesus Christ.

24. 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. 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:

1. 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 to Christ and His Church.
2. 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.

25. Every Catholic Christian understands 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.

In short, every Friday - even outside of Lent - should be a day of some sort of self-denial for Catholics, and abstinence from meat remains a traditional, encouraged act of Friday penance. During Lent, Catholics over age 14 remain required to abstain from meat, “unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday.”

Did you know that this Friday, March 19, is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which means that Catholics are not required to abstain from meat? Solemnities are the most important days of the Church's calendar and are celebrated with great joy, not penance. Every March 19, we recall one of the greatest saints whom God has given us, St. Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the guardian of Jesus Christ. Even though March 19 this year falls on a Friday during Lent, it's a time of celebration, not of self-denial. So this Friday, eat a cheeseburger (or whatever your favorite meat is) in honor of St. Joseph!

On the following Friday, however, abstain from meat as the Church's law continues to require during Lent. On Fridays outside of Lent, consider voluntarily abstaining from meat or doing some other act of self-denial in honor of the death of Jesus.