All Else Confusion

Though it may seem a trivial thing, the loss of Friday Abstinence in the American Church has had profound effects. As Amy Welborn once observed in a letter to First Things about the post-Vatican II era: "The transformation, in less than a decade, is staggering. The most concrete symbol of this feeling is something seemingly minor but actually not: the abandonment of the Friday abstinence. Something that Catholics had been taught was deeply expressive of both individual and corporate Catholic identity was simply dropped." Losing this symbol of Catholic identity meant that other markers of Catholic identity were viewed as variable as well. In Chapter 3 of her 1970 book, Natural Symbols, anthropologist Mary Douglas explored the phenomenon of the Bog Irish in London and linked their loss of identity and assimilation into London's secular culture to the abolishing of the Friday abstinence observing that though abolishing the obligation was done with the well-meant expectation that Catholics would thereby be freed to continue their penances with greater choice, the opposite happened. Douglas wrote, "To take away one symbol that meant something is no guarantee that the spirit of charity will flow in its place." In fact its loss played a role in severing individual Catholics from identification with the group.

All this is by way of introduction to the letter by Bishop Conlon of Steubenville to his flock inviting them to return to Friday abstinence. He states:

... The resumption of year-round abstinence in the Diocese of Steubenville will begin after this coming Easter, one week after Good Friday (April 17). Although the practice will not be a requirement of law, and failing to keep it will not constitute a sin, I hope every one who is old enough to receive Holy Communion and well enough to come to church will take it seriously. Our parishes, schools and organizations should provide meatless food at their Friday activities.

Though Bishop Conlon still leaves Friday abstinence in the realm of the optional, I hope that his invitation to return to this ancient tradition will be a start of reminding Catholics what was lost when we moved from corporate penance to individual choice. As Eamon Duffy writes in this wonderful essay from First Things, "There are no quick fixes: tradition cannot be rebuilt to a neat program and by orders from Rome. Our shared past can only be excavated by shared endeavor, by a painful and constant process of reeducation and rediscovery; in that process, we start from where we are, not where we wish we had stayed." Bishop Conlon has made a wonderful start toward "reeducation and rediscovery."

h/t to Thomas Peters at American Papist

Labels: Catholic culture