Archbishop proposes return to Friday abstinence from meat, Ember Days and Advent fasting

CV NEWS FEED // A prominent U.S. bishop has called for a return to the penitential practices of Friday abstinence from meat and fasting during Advent and on Ember Days. 

Ember Days are three days of fasting observed periodically throughout the liturgical year; the practice was universally kept in the Church prior to 1969.

At the fall plenary session of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Archbishop Borys Gudziak, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archeparcy of Philadelphia in the Ukrainian Catholic Church and chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, made the recommendation to all the assembled bishops.

In a discussion presentation on Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si, Archbishop Gudziak suggested that the bishops of the Latin rite reintroduce the penitential practices of fasting and abstinence that were long observed in the Church before Vatican II.

“A second suggestion: We could renew the tradition of Friday abstinence from meat,” Archbishop Gudziak said. He referenced the example of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, who in 2011 “reintroduced the pre-Vatican II practice, actually 2,000 years of practice, of abstaining from meat every Friday.”

The current practice in the Latin rite in the U.S. is the observance of fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and abstinence from meat on those days as well as all Fridays of Lent. Abstinence from meat on all other Fridays is recommended by not obligatory, although Fridays are still to be kept as a penitential day by some act of voluntary penance.

The Archbishop said the return to the Church’s older penitential observances in England and Wales was “inspired by Pope Benedict’s pastoral visit to England that year.” Extolling “environmental” as well as spiritual benefits, Archbishop Gudziak said that in England and Wales, “scholars calculated the environmental benefits, and they are significant.” 

“A return to Friday abstinence would be good for the soul and for the planet, maybe for something else, uniting our devotion to the Lord and reverence for the Lord’s creation,” he added.

Archbishop Gudziak added that reintroducing fasting and abstinence in the Latin church could be a way of uniting it with the Eastern rites as well. 

“Furthermore, fasting could be an opportunity for synodal engagement: exploring ancient practices in the Latin rite, such as ember days or Advent fasts, and other rich Eastern Christian practices among Catholics and others,” he concluded.