Ask A Catholic: No Meat on Friday’s

Ask A Catholic: No Meat on Friday’s

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By Mitch Finley

How come Catholics can’t eat meat on Fridays? Is that year ’round, or just during Lent?

The no-meat-on-Fridays custom goes way, waaaaay back—many centuries, in fact. Your average middle-aged-to-older adult remembers when it was a requirement for all Catholics to abstain from meat on all Fridays as long as their health allowed.

Theologically, the idea was to do this as a spiritual discipline. Since 1966, however, abstaining from meat on Fridays  is required—actually it’s more a strong recommendation—only on particular days (Ash Wednesday, Fridays during Lent, and Good Friday). Even then, however, people over a certain age are not required to do this.