![]() Partial abstinence replaced complete abstinence for Ember Wednesdays, Ember Saturdays, and the Vigil of Pentecost.īefore 1951, bishops were able to dispense laborers and their family members from the laws of abstinence, if necessary, under the workingmen’s privilege that was introduced in 1895. On January 28, 1949, the United States bishops issued modified regulations on abstinence in America again, after receiving a ruling from the Sacred Congregation of the Council. Eggs and milk products were permitted at breakfast and in the evening.” “In 1941 Pope Pius XII allowed bishops worldwide to dispense entirely from fast and abstinence except on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, provided that there was abstinence from meat every Friday, and fast and abstinence on these two days and the vigil of the Assumption and Christmas. Pope Pius XII accelerated the changes to the laws of fasting and abstinence, as Father Ruff relates: “The Sacred Congregation of the Council, in a letter dated, informs me that, in view of the difficulties experienced by the faithful in observing the laws of fast and abstinence on civil holidays, His Holiness, Pius XI, in the audience of, granted to all the Ordinaries of the United States, ad quinquennium, the faculty to dispense their subjects from the laws in question whenever any of the civil holidays now observed occurs on a day of fast and abstinence, or of abstinence.” Reductions in Fasting Intensify under Pope Pius XII This permission, as well as the workingmen’s privilege, were frequently renewed, but, after 1931, this permission was only on the basis of personal requests from individual bishops.”įurther, in 1931 Cardinal Fumasoni Biondi, the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, addressed the following to the American bishops: In 1919 Cardinal Gibbons was granted his request of transferring Saturday Lenten abstinence to Wednesday for all bishops’ dioceses in the U.S. ![]() “In 1917 Pope Benedict XV granted the faithful of countries in World War I the privilege of transferring Saturday Lenten abstinence to any other day of the week, excepting Friday and Ash Wednesday. Mara Morrow, writing on the fasting days around this time, states: And eggs and milk (i.e., lacticinia) became universally permitted.īut additional changes quickly ensued. Peter and Paul also ceased as a fast day on the Universal Calendar, although it had already been abrogated in the United States. Now Fridays in Advent likewise ceased being required days of fast, not only in America but universally. Wednesdays of Advent had previously been abrogated as fast days in America in 1837. But fasting and abstinence were not observed when a vigil fell on a Sunday, as stated in the Code: “If a vigil that is a fast day falls on a Sunday the fast is not to be anticipated on Saturday, but is dropped altogether that year.”Įffective per the 1917 Code of Canon law, the Wednesdays and Fridays of Advent were no longer fast days for the Universal Church. Saturdays in Lent were likewise days of complete abstinence. Partial abstinence, the eating of meat only at the principal meal, was obligatory during all weeks of Lent (Monday through Thursday).Īnd, of course, complete abstinence was required on all Fridays throughout the year, except when a Holy Day of Obligation fell on a Friday outside of Lent. The days of obligatory fasting, as listed in the 1917 Code of Canon Law, were the forty days of Lent (including Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday until noon) the Ember Days and the vigils of Pentecost, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, All Saints, and Christmas. In Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and Canada, the days just indicated, together with the Wednesdays of Advent and (28 June) the vigil of Saints Peter and Paul, are fasting days.” “In the United States of America, all the days of Lent the Fridays of Advent (generally) the Ember Days the vigils of Christmas and Pentecost, as well as those (14 Aug.) of the Assumption, (31 Oct.) of All Saints, are now fasting days. ![]() ![]() ![]() Pius X, enumerates the fast days as follows: The Catholic Encyclopedia from 1909, in describing the law of fasting as it was immediately before the changes that would occur under St. Read the previous article: Fasting in the Early Modern Era (Part 6) Fasting Changes at the Turn of the Century ![]()
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