M. J. wrote: |
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Hi, guys —
- Is fasting from meat on Fridays during Lent mandatory for men or women 72 years or older?
I realize you have answered this before, but I was wondering if this was applicable to older people.
I also understand sacrificing something else, in place of abstaining from meat, is allowed on non-Lenten Fridays.
- Would that also apply during Lent?
Thank you,
M. J.
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| { Is fasting from meat on Fridays during Lent mandatory for men or women 72 years or older? } |
Eric replied:
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M. J.,
Canon law says:
Canon 1252 † The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year of age. The law of fasting, however, binds all those who have attained their majority until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Nevertheless, pastors of souls and parents are to take care that minors not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are also educated in a genuine sense of penance.
Code of Canon Law: New English Translation
(Washington, DC: Canon Law Society of America, 1998), p. 385 |
There are two laws:
- the law of fasting (one meal plus two small ones on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday) and
- the law of abstinence, which you refer to (no meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday).
There is no upper limit for the latter. Anyone 59 years of age or older is dispensed from fasting on Good Friday and Ash Wednesday however, you are forever bound to abstain from meat on Fridays of Lent, and nothing may substitute for this.
Eric |
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