I wish to express my appreciation to Bob Warr for allowing me to use his blog as a platform for my posts for an undetermined length of time. Thanks, Bob.
Sincerely,
vanilla
STRING TOO SHORT TO TIE
Disclaimer: This article is for
entertainment purposes only. It is not a theological treatise, nor is its
intent to make fun of anyone’s practice of
faith.
Fish on Friday
We protestants
who lived north of the Arkansas River chided (read: made fun of) our Catholic
friends who would drive south of the river on Fridays to partake of their
evening meal, for there they felt free of conscience to eat red meat. It was
widely believed that Catholics were to abstain from meat on Fridays as an
integral part of the practice of their faith. Failure to do so made the
offender a sinner in the eyes of fellow Catholics and a hypocrite in the eyes of
the protestants.
The trip
across the river had its roots in some medieval history. Because of their
service in the Crusades, Pope Urban II granted a dispensation to Spanish counts
allowing them relief from the meatless Friday rule. In 1571, Pope Pius V
extended the dispensation to all lands under Spanish rule. Hence, Spain’s
colonies in the New World were excepted.1 Even though Spain had long since lost
her rule in the New World, and even through domination by various peoples, and
right on into the twentieth century American world in which I lived, the
observation continued in those geographical areas originally dominated by
Spain. In the West, the northern boundary of Mexico was the Arkansas River, and
hence the Catholics of Texas, New Mexico, and a portion of southern Colorado
considered themselves under the dispensation of Pope Pius
V.
In 1951, the faithful in the area
were advised that indeed they should follow the practice
of abstinence from meat on Fridays, along with the rest of the Catholic
world. Much confusion exists to this day, and Catholics
generally believe that to eat meat on Friday is not sinful, but that Friday
should be a day of penance as clarified by the Holy See in
1966.2
1Michael P. Foley, Fish on Friday: The One that Got Away, Musings of a Pertinacious Papist, December 30, 2010.
2ibid.
7 comments:
When my father owned a deli he always put bacon bits (real ones) on the German potato salad. sometimes on Fridays he would forget and when reminded quickly fold them into the potatoes so they wouldn't show. Also on Fridays there was fresh, homemade clam chowder. which unbeknownst to all, had a base of beef broth...it's not that my father had anything against Catholics but food was more of a religion to him - (And I spent my Thursday afternoon and evenings making fish cakes...so much fun when you are 14...)
Our school cafeteria regularly pulls out the fish sticks for everyone each Friday during Lent.
Grace. I can well imagine that fish cake manufacture was not the most appealing activity for a fourteen-year old girl. I bet that beef broth gave the chowder that something special!
Shelly, my last 21 years in school were spent in an almost evenly divided (Catholic/Protestant) community. You can believe the cafeteria served a fish dish on Fridays!
All the restaurants around here still offer Lenten specials. We abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent, but that is pretty much all I do for my Lenten observance. Oh, and sometimes I give up cussing...but that never lasts long.
Lin, did you ever consider giving up cussing for good? Maybe not. ;>)
Love your history stories that point out how silly some of our traditions are. We were not Catholic, but my dad loved seafood. We always had fish or its cousins on Fridays.
Shark, I, too, enjoy seafood. Day of the week in which I consume it, not important.
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