A Penance of Flesh: The Case for Meatless Fridays Year-Round
By Molly Jenkins
A common culture admired
A few years ago, my husband and I went on a long awaited trip to Italy. Our first full day in Rome was on a Friday in May, and we spent it exploring Vatican City. It was stupefyingly beautiful. At the close of the day, we wandered over into the adjacent neighborhood of Prati and ducked into a restaurant for dinner. The house-featured entree for the evening was a large fish plate studded with capers and olives. To our left, a priest and his friend ordered the fish. A glance around the restaurant revealed that various other diners had also ordered the fish. We followed suit and, to our benefit, it was a spectacular dinner. When in Rome, do as the Romans do––especially when it comes to good food.
My husband and I had already begun the practice of going meatless on Fridays outside of Lent before our trip to Italy. Our time overseas cemented this practice in my mind as the Catholic norm but, perhaps to their detriment, American Catholics have lapsed in this practice. Going meatless consistently on Fridays would be a phenomenal penance to offer as reparation for the sins of the Church; additionally, there is a historical precedence for meatless Fridays in the U.S. and a global precedence outside of the country. Ultimately, Meatless Fridays could demonstrate a Catholic environmental stewardship that yields tangible benefits: a marked decrease in U.S. carbon emissions. It would be incredibly beneficial for the Catholic Church, as well as the planet, if folks didn't wait on the USCCB to codify this practice and just revived it via popular piety.
Penance for sins, reparations for the church
A couple of years ago, Kendra Tierney, a popular Catholic blogger, spearheaded a viral effort to make reparations for the sins of the Catholic Church. The 2018 Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report had just been publicly released, documenting confirmed incidents of sexual abuse by priests across the state. Lay people rallied on and off social media, pledging #sackclothandashes: fasting, penance, and prayer for the systemic evil that had been perpetuated within the church. Many parishes have long since implemented mandatory safety training and rigorous screening of volunteers who work with children to prevent further abuse. However, this alone is not enough.
The issues arising within our Church are deep-seated––and they demand long-term solutions. We can renew our hearts, reclaim our church, and create positive change through fasting and prayer. Currently, American Catholic culture fosters a compartmentalized spirit of fasting during the liturgical season of Lent. I think that the spiritual health of our Church, and the environmental health of our country (the two are not mutually exclusive!), would benefit from a renewed commitment to year-round fasting. I would argue that the best, simplest, and easiest way to do this would be by reinstating the tradition of fasting from meat on Fridays, year-round.
Historical & global precedence
In 1966, the USCCB released American Catholics from abstaining from meat on Fridays, encouraging Catholics to embrace a penance “freely chosen” instead. However, as the communally-enforced practice of meatless Fridays died out, those individual penances and preferences largely failed to materialize. The contemporary position on Friday penance fails to cultivate a common and relatable culture among Catholics. Before 1966, Catholics had adhered to fasting from meat for millenia. Indeed, St. Basil the Great claims that fasting is commanded of us at the beginning of time:
Fasting is as old as mankind itself. It was given as a law in paradise. The first commandment Adam received was: “From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil do not eat.” Now this command, “do not eat,” is the divine law of fasting and temperance.
It has also been suggested that, prior to the Great Flood, humans were largely vegetarian, and only after the flood did God permit human beings to eat animal flesh (Genesis 9:2-3). However, this precedence would have been overwritten by the law of the New Testament, when we were given permission to eat all kinds of foods (Acts 10:9-15). A virtuous interpretation of permission, though, does not mean indulging in excess. As St. Basil writes, fasting and abstinence were upheld in the early Christian world. While eating meat is not condemned at all, periodic fasting from meat has been part of a long standing Catholic tradition informed by both the Bible and the writings of the Church Fathers.
Before 1966, abstaining from meat on Fridays was the norm for American Catholics. In other countries, it is still the rule––both de facto and de jure. In Singapore, all Catholics above the age of 14 are required to abstain from meat on Fridays. In other countries where the practice was suspended, it has since returned. Catholics in the United Kingdom were released from abstaining from meat in 1983, but in 2011 Bishops there revived the practice and formally codified it. In countless countries it is no longer the rule officially, but the larger Catholic population and common culture has meant it is still the rule by custom, as I observed when I visited Italy.
Environmental health benefits
In the US, abstaining from meat year round was abrogated partly on the grounds that meat was no longer a ‘special’ good, and that it was now common and easy to obtain. However, the easy access to and cheapness of meat gives a false impression as to its true cost. Meat is an incredibly expensive resource and its typical supermarket cost does not reflect the externalities––like negative by-products and transportation requirements. Meat requires an enormous amount of land, water, fossil fuels, and livestock feed to maintain, contributing to the rise of CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) to meet consumer demand. CAFOs not only require intensive resources to run, but they also pose serious health threats to the animals therein and neighboring human communities: groundwater contamination and disease are frequently cited problems. Finally, high rates of red meat consumption in the American diet have contributed to a higher risk of heart disease. We do not need to eat meat three times a day, every day. We do not need to eat as much meat as we do, and it is wreaking havoc on our relationship with food and land.
If all U.S. Catholics (86.3 million people) gave up meat on Fridays year round, we would decrease U.S. agricultural carbon emissions by 4%. This may not sound like a lot, but it absolutely is––nearly 27 million metric tons of carbon would be avoided annually. If we gave up meat on Fridays and Wednesdays (as our Eastern and Orthodox brothers and sisters do), that number would double to 8% of the United States’ total carbon emissions from agriculture. For a religious subset to wield that much positive influence over U.S. carbon emissions is astonishing; it should be a testament to what we can achieve through collective action. Moreover, it is something that we can achieve without any political bargaining, policy gymnastics, or lobbying.
In Summary
Catholics in the U.S. have compelling reasons to commit to meatless Fridays year round that appeal to both traditionalist and progressive sensibilities within the Church. Fasting and abstinence are meaningful, powerful, and traditionally codified ways of willing our penance for wrongdoings into material reality. Finally, this practice has tremendous value in demonstrating Catholic commitment to authentic environmental stewardship and reverence for the land and resources God has gifted to us.
A general culture of meatless Fridays, even when formally codified, allows room for personal reflection and opting for suitable alternatives. Not everyone can go meatless, much less fast, for completely valid medical reasons, but it might be worth considering if we don’t regularly abstain from meat out of personal convenience. To you, dear reader, I issue the challenge: Will you continue to abstain from meat long after Lent has passed?
