U.S. Catholic bishops relax the rule against eating meat on Fridays - November 18th, 1966

On this day in 1966, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops loosened the rule requiring Catholics to abstain from meat on Fridays. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that skims the menu of history to find
the special of the day. I'm Gay Bluesier, and today
we're looking at how a Catholic tradition was accidentally up

(00:21):
ended after more than a thousand years of strict observance.
The day was November eighteenth, nineteen sixty six. The US
Conference of Catholic Bishops loosened the rule requiring Catholics to

(00:43):
abstain from meat on Friday's The announcement was made in
a document called the Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence.
In it, the bishops made clear that Friday should remain
a day of quote voluntary self denial and person all penance.
The difference was that Catholics now had the option to

(01:04):
practice penance in other ways besides abstaining from meat. That way,
if giving up meat no longer felt like much of
a sacrifice, members of the church could seek out a deeper,
more personal form of penance instead. However, the bishop's message
wasn't reported or received as intended. Instead, the American media

(01:26):
and many practicing Catholics took it to mean that abstinence
from meat on Friday's had been completely abolished, And as
for the part about finding other forms of penance, well,
that got lost in translation Entirely. Many ancient religions practice
fasting and abstention from certain foods as a way to
further spiritual development. Catholicism was no exception in that regard.

(01:51):
In fact, abstaining from meat on Friday's was one of
the earliest requirements of the Church. The tradition likely grew
out of the desire to memorial lies Christ's death on
a weekly basis. To honor his sacrifice, which took place
on a Friday, Catholics began making a small sacrifice of
their own by giving up meat one day out of
the week. That sentiment is also the basis for the

(02:14):
forty days season of Lent, during which Catholics also abstain
from eating meat on Wednesdays as well as on Fridays.
And by the way, most Catholics do still fast on
Friday's during Lent, it's just all the other Fridays of
the year that have fallen by the wayside. It's worth
noting that the early Churches directive made no mention of

(02:36):
what should be eaten on Fridays. The only requirement was
to avoid the flesh of animals. That left plenty of
choices on the table, including every fruit, vegetable, grain, and
dairy product you could think of. But humans being humans,
some Catholics immediately started looking for a loophole. Meat was
the only thing off the menu, for sure, But what

(02:59):
is meat and anyway? Traditionally the term refers to things
like lamb, chicken, beef, pork, ham, and venison. Those all
come from warm blooded land animals, So what about cold
blooded aquatic creatures like fish? Did they fall under the
Church's definition of meat? In a somewhat counterintuitive ruling, it

(03:21):
was eventually determined that the flesh of fish was not
the same as the flesh of animals, and was therefore
a okay for Catholics to eat on Fridays. The justification
for that decision was a little shaky at best, but
many members of the Church point to St. Paul's First
Letter to the Corinthians as the answer. In chapter fifteen,

(03:42):
verse thirty nine, Paul wrote, quote, all flesh is not
the same flesh. There is one kind of flesh of men,
another flesh of beasts. Another of fish and another of birds.
Paul didn't elaborate on the distinction between one flesh and another,
nor at any other author of the New Testament. That

(04:03):
ambiguity allowed church leaders to make all kinds of additional exceptions,
stretching the definition of fish beyond its breaking point. For example,
in the seventeenth century, the Bishop of Quebec ruled the
beavers qualified as fish, and in the eighteenth century Catholics
in the Detroit area were granted a dispensation to eat

(04:23):
muskrat on days of abstinence. More recently, several amphibians and
reptiles were cleared for consumption as well. In for instance,
the Archbishop of New Orleans mortified biologists by declaring that
alligator is quote considered in the fish family. Regional delicacies aside,

(04:45):
plain old fish remained the substitute of choice for most
Catholic families. It became a prominent part of Catholic culture
in its own right, as well as the go to
dish for end of the week family dinners. That standing
was solidified in the twentie century with the institution of
Friday fish fries, a fairly inexpensive way for working class

(05:06):
Catholics to dine now while still complying with the rules
of their faith. Restaurants were the first to offer fish
fries as a way to better accommodate their Catholic customers,
but it wasn't long before churches, vf W halls and
other groups also began hosting them as fundraisers. The connection
between Catholics and Friday fish dinners was so strong that

(05:29):
it actually inspired McDonald's to add a fish sandwich to
its menu in the early nineteen sixties. The filet of
fish was the first addition to the restaurant's original menu,
and it was added specifically to address the loss of
Catholic customers on Friday's. However, just as McDonald's was shaking
up its menu, Pope Paul the sixth was making changes

(05:52):
of his own. In early nineteen sixty six, fresh from
their recently concluded Second Vatican Council, the Pope issued it
to pre titled Pintomini or Repent, It emphasized the importance
of penance and broadened the forms of penance approved by
the Church. In particular, the Pope called for the year

(06:13):
long practice of fasting and abstinence to be adapted to
local economic and social conditions. For example, if meat was
not a staple of a Catholic family's diet, then they
should be allowed to substitute abstinence with a different form
of penance, such as works of charity. With that flexible
approach in mind, the Pope left it to each country's

(06:34):
bishops to determine how Catholics and their respective countries should
observe Fridays throughout the year. In the fall of nineteen
sixty six, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops took on
that task during their annual meeting, the bishops acknowledged, just
as the Pope had, that times were indeed changing. For
many Catholics, abstaining from meat was no longer the great

(06:57):
sacrifice it once was. A growing number adhere to vegetarian diets,
and for those who didn't, the option of eating fish
ensured that Friday dinner was just as substantial as any
other night of the week. In light of that, the
bishops voted to relax the rules on fasting and abstinence
for Friday's outside of Lent. That said, the bishops made

(07:19):
it clear they still considered not eating meat to be
the ideal form of penance for Fridays, and their pastoral statement,
they encouraged Catholics to keep up the practice, saying, quote,
even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence
as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we give

(07:39):
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. The bishop's hope was
ultimately unfulfilled, as the vast majority of American Catholics again

(08:00):
eating meat on Friday's. In fact, according to economist Frederick
bell Us, fish prices took a nose dive after the
bishops released their statement. Even though Friday abstinence remained the
universal law of the Latin Church, and even though the
US bishops still encouraged it themselves, the takeaway from most
Catholics was that meatless Friday's had been abolished. Nearly six

(08:24):
decades later, some Catholics in the US believe the loss
of year round Friday abstinence has done long term damage
to the community. That's because for many people, eating fish
on Friday's was more than a form of penance. It
was a small but meaningful reminder of their religious identity.
Of course, any Catholics missing that weekly sense of belonging

(08:46):
are welcome to resurrect the Friday fish fry and go
ahead and throw some muskrats and alligators in the mix too.
While you're at it. Eating those certainly sounds like penance
to me. I'm Gay Blusier and hopefully you now know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

(09:06):
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(09:27):
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