First, let me thank Robert Paul for his post. I didn't know that the Pope
had called for a day of fasting to prevent the war in Iraq. Apparently most
of Catholics didn't get the message. Too bad.
As to Andy's question, Since 1983 Catholics between the ages of 14 and 59
are supposed to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and every Friday
during Lent. In addition, those same Catholics are supposed to fast (eat
only one large meal and 2 smaller ones -- fast??) on Ash Wednesday and Good
Friday. Even before I left the church, Catholics were no longer being sent
to hell for eating meat on non-Lenten Fridays. Thanks to John XXIII for
that. Too bad for all those who were already roasting their souls on hell's
open fire.
The Catholic Church has always had it priorities right. Drinking alcoholic
beverages was never considered as breaking either fast or abstinence.
Catholics also know how to manipulate God and the Curia. In the Middle Ages
the one large meal during fasting was not supposed to be eaten before
nones -- the ninth hour (3 p.m.) Some monks found it hard to wait that
long. They put their creativity to work and reasoned that 'nones' being a
time period within which certain prayers were to be recited referred to the
time period, not the actual hour. Since sext (sixth hour) ended at noon,
then nones started at noon and ended at 3 pm and so one could eat a large
meal at 12:01 pm without breaking fast. Btw, our word 'noon' is derived
from nones. Old tun belly Thomas Aquinas went further reasoning that a
small quantity of nourishment not taken as a meal, did not break one's fast
since it was not a meal. I love the Catholic Church. Catholics make such
bad Muslims.
Mike Geary Memphis
Mike, do Catholics fast? No meat on Fridays, but that's not really fasting.
Do Catholics fast? Is the Pope Catholic?
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0305-09.htm
Protestants seem so bland to me. Except maybe the Puritans when they burned the witches.
Yeah, all those snakes and hollerin' and rollin' around in the aisle and goin'
home to listen to some old Billy Sunday tapes remastered from the original 78s.
Boring as Easter in St. Petersburg. And that bore, Martin Luther?
Robert Paul Department of Ecumenicology Mutton College
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