Feel certain that my Catholic card lapsed a very long time ago, but the rules were clear: no meat on Fridays during Lent. If you go back even further, Catholics didn't eat meat on any Friday.
The fish fry in Wisconsin, the Filet O'Fish sandwich at McDonald's: designed to serve those who abstain from meat on Fridays, regardless of religion.
"In terms of the meatless, Impossible Whopper, whatever, I mean, you know it’s all imitation stuff, but I don’t think that’s in the same spirit of what fasting or abstaining from meat is all about," Father Tom Hurley, the pastor at Old St. Patrick's Church, said.
The tenets of sacrificing meat, but not fish, goes back to very ancient times. The nuances of defining animals, such as sea turtles, that exist on land and in the sea isn't in the "spirit of what fasting or abstaining from meat."
One Lenten Friday, my mother was fixing spaghetti with Ragu with meat sauce. She realized part way through that we only had the meat sauce. She said, "well, there isn't that much meat in there anyway." My mother also would rationalize stopping at McDonald's on car trips on Fridays during Lent with a "travel exemption." Nobody in my family ever ordered a Filet O'Fish.
Daily Show looks into alternative meats
South Park explores the effects of a processed plant-based diet
Beyond Burger has a lot of ingredients but doesn't qualify as ultra-processed
Changing definition of processed food doesn't change the concern
Review: The Beyond Burger
The idea of the meatless burger is to avoid the eating of animals, whether that is for climate change, animal welfare, religion, or some other reason. There are other standard meatless burgers and hot dogs. The Beyond and Impossible worlds aren't distinctively different. You could eat a portobello mushroom in a hamburger bun.
Which is more of a sacrifice: eating lobster with tons of butter or a Beyond Burger?
Some people might think these newest meatless burgers taste too close to meat to be a sacrifice. Not sure I would agree with that on taste. The whole idea was to find something that tastes close to meat that doesn't involve animals.
What's Tempting: Corned beef on a Friday during Lent
Temptation of the Week: Eating fish and seafood on Fridays during Lent
Temptation of the Week: Eating meat on Fridays in Lent
Catholics can eat eggs, cheese, butter, fish, lobster, and crab on those 6 Fridays in the spring. If that isn't enough of a sacrifice, you can eat rice and beans on Fridays. A lot of Catholics eat rice and beans a lot of days and don't consider that a sacrifice.
BalanceofFood.com religion coverage
When the meat/fish rules were made, going without meat was a huge sacrifice, even with being allowed to eat fish and seafood. In modern times, going without meat for a day is not a big deal.
When St. Patrick's Day, an American holiday more than an holiday in Ireland, falls on a Friday, U.S. bishops consistently allow the eating of corned beef on a Lenten Friday. Not much of a sacrifice there.
photo credit: me
Comments