Do Catholics need to abstain from meat on Fridays in Lent when it's a feast day?
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Lent is a 40-day period where Catholics abstain from luxuries and refrain from eating any meat, except fish, on Fridays in preparation for Easter. But what happens when religious observances with different obligations fall on the same day?
In 2021 during Lent two major Feast Days occurred on Friday — he Solemnity of the Feast of St. Joseph on March 19, and the Solemnity of the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25.
This year, the Feast of the Annunciation again falls on Friday.
More: As Catholics practice sacrifice during the holy season of Lent, do Sundays count?
Feast days, or solemnities, are days in the Catholic church where Saints and events in the Bible are celebrated. Despite the name, the days are not always commemorated with a banquet of food but instead mean "an annual religious celebration, a day dedicated to a particular saint" according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
But what is the hierarchy when a feast day occurs on a Friday during Lent?
The laws of the Catholic Church provide for the occurrence of Feast Days during Fridays in Lent. Canon 1251 from the 1983 Code of Canon Law addresses this situation:
Canon 1251: Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
When a solemnity falls on a Friday in Lent, the celebration of the Solemnity takes precedence over the requirement of fasting from meat or some other food.
In other words, celebration of the solemnity overrides the Lenten requirement.
Contact Victoria Dodge at vdodge@theadvertiser.com or on Twitter @Victoria_Dodge
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Do Catholics need to abstain from meat on Saint Joseph's Day Feast Day?
