Friday During Christmas Octave: To Meat or Not to Meat? - by Dr Geoffrey Brushwood

To meat or not to meat today, Friday of the Christmas Octave, opened an interesting discussion among my friends.

PiusX published the following rules for obligatory days of fast and abstinence:

• Abstinence is obligatory on all Fridays, except on Solemnities (i.e., IClass Feasts).
• Fasting and abstinence are obligatory on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Father Z wrote about this in 2016. His answer,

"Days (other than Sunday) within the Octave of Christmas are not “heavy enough” (as a “solemnity” would be) to “outweigh” the Friday obligation to do some sort of penance as determined by the conferences of bishops."

The counter-argument: In the missal of the novus ordo, no qualification is attached to the two remaining octaves of Christmas and Easter.

So they should not be treated differently.

My guess is that when making the (new) rules, they did not pay attention to the details, and missed the point that the Christmas octave, de facto, does not have the same weight as the Easter Octave as the feast-days, e.g. Saint Stephen, take preference over it.

It's like with the female doctors of the Church which is a liturgical title. They introduced the title, but never bothered creating a liturgy for them.

LikeShare

BrTomFordeOFMCap

Dec 27, 2019

We're having fish and chips. It's a break from turkey, ham, spiced beef, pudding etc. Back to feasting tomorrow!

GChevalier

Dec 27, 2019

As for fasting and abstinence, because of the conciliar, no one understands anything anymore. So here is what we need to know, and these are the last rules communicated by Pius XII (I speak for France of course because I do not know the particular rules for other countries, but what I am going to say is for the universal Church it seems to me):

1- There is abstinence every Friday of the year, except those who fall with a feast of obligation such as, for France, Assumption, All Saints' Day and Christmas.

2. There is fasting and abstinence on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and the vigil of the Immaculate Conception and Christmas, the latter of which can be brought forward one day.

Everything else, such as the Four Times, is left to the devotion of each one.

This is what I know.

As for what was decreed by the conciliar council, it is worthless since the conciliar council is the Synagogue of Satan and the army of the Antichrist, as everyone can see today.