Fish Fridays, not just for lent.

Did you know that the requirement for Catholics to give penance on all Fridays not just during lent was never lifted?

In fact today the Code of Canon Law 1251 states "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."

Why then is it that so many Catholics assume that we are no longer need to give penance outside of lent? This is most likely due to confusion and misinterpretation of a statement regarding Penance and Abstinence issued by The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (our Episcopal Conference as mentioned in Can 1251) in November 1966. In that statement the USCCB declared that "Changing circumstances, including economic, dietary, and social elements, have made some of our people feel that the renunciation of the eating of meat is not always and for everyone the most effective means of practicing penance. Meat was once an exceptional form of food; now it is commonplace.20. Accordingly, since the spirit of penance primarily suggests that we discipline ourselves in that which we enjoy most, to many in our day abstinence from meat no longer implies penance, while renunciation of other things would be more penitential."(US Bishops Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence, 19-20),

In other words the need for penance has not vanished, but rather it was felt that because of the common availability of meat and fish, that giving up meat may not in all circumstances constitute a sacrifice great enough to properly show penance and so, outside of lent, an equal or greater penance may be substituted.

"Catholic peoples from time immemorial have set apart Friday for special penitential observance by which they gladly suffer with Christ that they may one day be glorified with Him. This is the heart of the tradition of abstinence from meat on Friday where that tradition has been observed in the holy Catholic Church." (ibid,18)

"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."(ibid,22)

It is important to remember that each Friday recollects Good Friday and as such we are required as Catholics to perform a form of penance. The United States Conference of Bishops has given us the ability to choose that form or penance on Fridays outside of lent, however they also issue the statement; "even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence...as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat" (ibid,24)

One last quote to reflect on from the letter reminds us of our need for penance, the full letter can be read at the link below."...Sacred Scriptures declare our guilt to be universal; hence the universal obligation to that repentance which Peter, in his sermon on Pentecost, declared necessary for the forgiveness of sin (Acts 2:38). Hence, too, the Church's constant recognition that all the faithful are required by divine law to do penance. As from the fact of sin we Christians can claim no exception, so from the obligation to penance we can seek no exemption." (US Bishops Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence,1)

http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/lent/us-bishops-pastoral-statement-on-penance-and-abstinence.cfm