Friday abstinence for vegans
What do persons who don’t normally eat meat do about the church’s rules on abstinence, such as on the Fridays during Lent? Nowadays, many Catholics are mainly fish eaters anyway, or they are vegans or vegetarians. What can they do to participate in the discipline of the church? (New Middletown, Ind.)
Your question prompts a question in my own mind: What’s the difference between a vegan and a vegetarian? On the off chance that any of our readers — like myself — might not have known this, here it is: Vegans eat no animal products at all, while vegetarians don’t eat animals but may eat products that come from them such as dairy and eggs.
And yes, there are many of each: I’ve read that, at some point in their lives, more than 10 percent of Americans are vegans or vegetarians. So, your question does have relevance, and the answer is simple: Pick your own penance.
In 1966, when the U.S. Catholic bishops lifted the rule of mandatory abstinence on Fridays throughout the year, this is what they said: “Since the spirit of penance primarily suggests that we discipline ourselves in that which we enjoy most, to many in our day abstinence from meat no longer implies penance, while renunciation of other things would be more penitential” (No. 20).
Vegans and vegetarians should choose their own sacrifice on the Fridays of Lent. How about refraining from your favorite meatless meal? And it doesn’t even have to be food-related: Since Fridays are set aside for grateful remembrance of the sacrifice of Jesus, how about taking an extra five minutes of prayer on Lenten Fridays to thank Jesus for dying on the cross?
Will Sr. Ita Ford be a saint?
Recently four men were beatified as martyrs in El Salvador. In 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero was murdered while celebrating Mass, and in 2018, he was declared a saint.
Is there any effort underway to beatify the Maryknoll Sister Ita Ford and the three other church women who answered Archbishop Romero’s plea for help? They were brutally murdered also in 1980. Are they not martyrs as well? (Fredericksburg)
Sister Ita Ford was a Catholic Maryknoll Sister who grew up in Brooklyn. She served as a missionary in Bolivia, Chile and El Salvador, working primarily with the poor.
She was beaten, raped and murdered Dec. 2, 1980, by members of the El Salvador military along with three fellow missionaries — Maryknoll Sister Maura Clarke, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and lay missionary Jean Donovan.
In January 2022, Mass was celebrated in El Salvador at the tomb of Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford by retired Bishop Octavio Cisneros of Brooklyn and Bishop Oswaldo Escobar of Chalatenango, El Salvador. Following the Mass, Bishop Escobar said Salvadoran bishops are working on a canonization cause that will include the four women martyrs.
‘Lead us not into temptation’
When we say the Lord’s Prayer at Mass, we pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” Why would God lead us into temptation? I know that God allows temptation to occur, but the word “lead” is an active verb that implies God may be actively involved in our being tempted.
Would you please clarify the church’s teaching on God’s role in temptation? (Chambersburg, Pa.)
I agree with your concern over the phrase “lead us not into temptation.” But more important, so does Pope Francis. In an interview in 2017 with Italian television, Pope Francis said, “That is not a good translation.”
He suggested as a possible alternative, “Do not let us fall into temptation.” And within two years, Vatican-approved translations in French, Italian and Spanish included equivalents such as “Do not abandon us to temptation.”
That comports with the biblical Letter of James that says: “No one experiencing temptation should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; … Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (1:13-14).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church clarifies that the Greek wording used in the Scripture “means both ‘do not allow us to enter into temptation’ and ‘do not let us yield to temptation’ ” (No. 2846).
So be comforted: The God who created us out of love would not purposely place us in temptation and set us up to fall into sin.
Collection basket in sanctuary
Recently a new priest came to our church and started a tradition many of us think is disrespectful and distasteful.
When the ushers take up the collection, they put it in a covered basket and march it up the aisle, right behind the gifts of bread and wine. Then the priest accepts the gifts, places the basket on the floor of the sanctuary and the Mass continues with the basket in front of the altar.
Is there anything in Catholic doctrine that indicates whether we should or should not do this? (Atlanta)
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal is the church’s official “guidebook” for the celebration of the Eucharist.
Here is what it has to say about the offertory procession: “The offerings are then brought forward. It is a praiseworthy practice for the bread and wine to be presented by the faithful. … Even though the faithful no longer bring from their own possessions the bread and wine intended for the liturgy as was once the case, nevertheless the rite of carrying up the offerings still keeps its spiritual efficacy and significance” (No. 73).
That same section of the instruction addresses your concern over the particular placing of monetary gifts: “Money or other gifts for the poor or for the church, brought by the faithful or collected in the church, are acceptable; given their purpose, they are to be put in a suitable place away from the eucharistic table.”
From the wording of the instruction, it seems clear that the position of the collection basket should not take the focus away from the Mass.
Why Jesus uses parables