Friday 28 October 2016

50 years ago: Roman Catholic leaders in Canada relax the ban on eating meat on Friday

Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Mark 7:7 (citing Isaiah 29:13)

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:
“Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”?
These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.
Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
Colossians 2:20-23 (NIV)

Submitted for your approval, for those who aren't aware or have forgotten, this little item that serves as a reminder that Roman Catholicism is manmade religion that can be changed on the whim of the leaders. As reported by Canadian Press and published in The Edmonton Journal, October 15, 1966:

Ottawa--Canadian Roman Catholics still observing meatless Fridays have been released from the church ban in a general relaxation of penitential discipline.

The new voluntary code went into effect at 2 P.M. Edmonton time Friday.

Children, the aging, the ailing and those who carry their lunch to work had been released from the rule in earlier years. But for other adult Roman Catholics, eating meat on Friday was a mild sin.

Although it eliminates rigid rules on fastings and abstinence, the directive from the Canadian church hierarchy said pentential observance should be continued on Fridays and during Lent. Lent Fridays are particularly important.

Archbishop Philip Pocock of Toronto told a press conference that Catholics, in following their individual conscience, must not go too far on penance relaxation.

"Someone who never does penance in the Lenten season, for example, would be sinful," he said.

The changes are in line with Vatican decisions last year that authorized bishops in each country to set their own fast and abstinence rules.
Roman Catholic bishops in the United States followed suit on November 18, 1966.

3 comments:

  1. I always wondered where they came up with such rules in the first place.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Church has simply carried on the Traditions of Christ for the past 2,000 years. If you study the ancient liturgies of the early Christians, the beauty and intellect should convince you of your errors.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark,
      These were NOT the "traditions of Christ," rather they were traditions of men invented by an apostate and heretical organization 400 years after Christ rose from the dead -- Roman Catholicism.

      Delete