Why can Catholics eat fish on friday, but no other meat? Fish is a meat.
An interesting side note to this. The Milwaukee Arch-diocese has issued an exception to allow people to eat corned-beef today.
“In this life you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant. For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.” -Elwood P. Dowd in “Harvey”
Our ancestors were confused about a lot of things. The whole fish is not meat thing is one of them. Their understanding of what qualified as meat is what we would call “red meat”, meaning the flesh of a mammal. They also thought whales were fish, chimps were monkeys, and insects were reptiles.
What? I thought Catholics could eat meat on Friday now. Boy, am I out of touch.
Peace,
mangeorge (Munching on a chili dog)
I only know two things;
I know what I need to know
And
I know what I want to know
Mangeorge, 2000
It’s Lent, Mangeorge. The “no meat on Friday” rule was done away with as a “command” (but it’s still a recommendation), except for Lent. Lent started last week, so no meat on Fridays until Easter for Roman Catholics.
-Melin
Voted Best Moderator (Emeritus)
MEAT: 2 : animal tissue considered especially as food: a : FLESH 2b b : FLESH 1a; specifically : flesh of domesticated animals (emphasis mine)
It’s not an unheard-of distinction, in other words. There are “vegetarians” that eat fish but not (other) meat.
- Rick
Well, I don’t know if this has any bearing on the Catholic rule, but the Jewish law of not mixing meat and milk doesn’t include fish because the verse prohibiting it says “You shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk,” implying that the prohibition only applies to animals that lactate, i.e., mammals. (Birds were later included as a Rabbinic decree because it can be, in some cases, confused with mammal meat, but fish never would.)
Chaim Mattis Keller
ckeller@kozmo.com
“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective
Try the story at this site 40 questions for Catholics.
There is a more detailed, but similar, explanation here.
If these don’t satisfy you, as they didn’t satisfy me, try posting your question at the Catholic Forum. Be warned though, this site may be similar to the fundamental Christian message board at leftbehind.com. This thread touches on your question and then takes off in another direction.
Bricker, there are posters on this board (I can think of one in particular) that would crucify you for daring to suggest this.
http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/001503.html
To add to the above-referenced, excellent explanation: I’ll bet that for a LOT of early Church members fish was a vital staple. Say you live near a coast, you’re not rich, and you [being a good Catholic] have eight or nine kids. Fish might well be all you can count on for dinner. I doubt the Church would have gotten far banning such a major food source. Just MHO, for what it’s worth.
I consider myself to almost be a vegetarian - I only eat fish 1-2 times a week because I need the protein (and yes, I personally believe that’s all I, or anyone, really needs to have a healthy diet) and I still don’t care for many of the types non-animal protein alternatives. But that’s not important.
I don’t think anyone ever answered the whole question. What’s the deal with Friday and meat? What’s the biblical connection? I’ve been wondering this one myself.
From the FAQ UncleBeer cited above:
Then there’s something I’d like to know, concerning the papal announcement in 1966: What was going to happen, following that announcement, to all the people who had been sent to hell for eating meat on Friday?
I heard that the reason that Catholics had to eat fish rather than meat on a friday was to keep the Pope’s very large private fishing fleet in business. He sold it just before announcing that you wouldn’t go to hell afterall for eating meat.
I must have missed that announcement, Sharkboy; when did His Holiness make it?
sharkboy, I’d be curious where you have seen this (even though I know you were joking, it makes the rounds quite often). Abstinence was practiced in the church since the second century (at least 150 years before Christianity was even legal–and long before any popes had any wealth).
The rule of abstinence was proclaimed church-wide by Nicholas I in the ninth century–at a time when there were no massive fishing fleets to be supported. The rule was modified in 1966, at a time when Paul VI certainly did not own any fishing fleets.
Tom~