17 March 2010

The great question

Yesterday I received an e-mail from Buffalo Wild Wings with a coupon for a free dessert to celebrate my coming birthday.

I'll be in Effingham this Friday to give a talk in the afternoon to a De Colores weekend and planned spending the evening in Effingham working on Sunday's homily since I have a meeting there the next morning anyway; there's no sense going back and forth so soon (we have no Saturday morning Mass here in the parishes).

Some of the high school students want to join me for dinner that night and Buffalo Wild Wings is a favorite place to go. Now, then, the dilemma.

Friday, being the Solemnity of Saint Joseph (which happens to be also my name day), is not a day of abstinence for Catholics, though I don't think many Catholics are aware of this. Canon law itself provides for this, as canonist Edward Peters explains in his post that beat me to this one.

Would a priest eating meat publicly on a Friday in Lent be a cause of scandal, even though the obligation of absticence is not binding (I'll not go to Buffalo Wild Wings just for dessert)?

4 comments:

  1. No. Rather it's a catechetical moment. You can explain to anyone asking (or staring, or whispering) what the real significance of a "feast day" is.

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  2. You could explain it to the students you're eating with, but if there are a lot of other people in the restaurant....

    You and Fr Selvester above certainly have more prudence than I, but I'd tread carefully.

    If you don't want to 'dress down' (totally understandable, especially with students), is take out not an option?

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  3. So....what did you decide?

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  4. I decided to have meat, and I spread the word through Facebook. I've never had so many text messages in one day all asking the same question!

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