Part — Gury-Ballerini, Compendium of Moral Theology (8th ed., 1884)
On the Fifth Precept of the Church, or On Abstinence from Flesh Meat Outside Fasting
- Principles. - I. There exists an Ecclesiastical precept imposed on all the faithful of abstaining from flesh meats on certain days. It is established from various Constitutions of the Supreme Pontiffs, Catechisms, and universal custom, and by the consent of all theologians. Indeed the precept of abstinence is reckoned apostolic, not otherwise than the precept of fasting, from which in the first ages of the Church it was not separated.
II. This precept, besides the time of fasting, urges, 1. on Friday of any week in the whole Christian world, unless the Nativity of the Lord falls on this day; 2. on Saturday, unless legitimate custom somewhere for some time of the year has prescribed otherwise.
But in most dioceses of France, from a peculiar custom, the obligation of abstinence is in force on the three Rogation days and on the vigil of St. Mark. Therefore attend to the special custom of places.
III. The precept of abstinence obliges per se under grave sin, because the matter is per se grave; in it, nevertheless, according to the common opinion of theologians, smallness of matter is admitted. - St. Lig., n. 1030.
But just as from other positive laws, so also from this obligation there are given excusing causes, namely impotence, both physical and moral, or great difficulty, which is found in the observance of the law. - Thus all theologians with St. Lig., ibid.
- Questions. - Q. 1. Whether flesh meats can be given to little children on those days on which they are prohibited?
Resp. It is affirmed if they have not attained the use of reason; otherwise, I deny it. - But if they possess the use of reason before the seventh year, it is disputed; St. Lig., de Leg., n. 155, more probably denies it. Yet it is expedient that children become accustomed to abstinence of this sort even before they are obliged. - Recall the things said in the Treatise on Laws, n. 93.
Q. 2. What quantity of flesh meat is required for grave sin?
Resp. It is greatly disputed. All agree that the matter which notably nourishes is grave; but this can scarcely be determined. According to many, grave matter must exceed half an ounce; but St. Lig., n. 1029, rejects this opinion, where he relates and seems to approve what the Salm. say, that small matter is only an eighth part of an ounce. Yet they say this about days on which, besides, fasting must be observed 1.
1 Therefore the things brought forward in this place from St. Alphonsus or the Salmanticenses do not bear on the matter, because they discuss the quantity of food which gravely violates the law of fasting, insofar as it forbids several eatings: but on those days on which only abstinence from flesh meats, and not fasting, is prescribed, their reasonings concerning foods which nourish little or much are wholly beside the matter, because the law of abstinence does not prevent anyone from nourishing himself as often and as much as he pleases.
Moreover, even if there is speech about fasting, the opinions related here by the Author will not easily be reconciled with those things which are said below, n. 494, concerning grave matter in food which is taken on a fast day outside the meal and the small supper. For does half an ounce of meat nourish more than two or three ounces of another food, for example, of bread, nourish?
Q. 3. Whether it is a mortal sin to eat pottage, lettuces, etc., seasoned with flesh meat or fat?
Resp. It is affirmed if that food is notably full of broth or gravy; otherwise it will be only venial. Hence it is mortal if the sauce of the pottage was cooked with a great quantity of flesh meat, and so concerning other things. But the poor are more easily excused from grave, or even light, sin, who, since they cannot buy butter, use a small quantity of fat for seasoning pottage.
- Q. 4. Who are considered to be excused from the law of abstinence?
Resp. 1. Begging poor persons; for they can eat whatever they receive as alms, as theologians commonly think.
- Poor laborers who have nothing else except a little piece of fat or bacon for seasoning pottage or vegetables. - St. Lig., n. 1008.
- The sick, for example, those laboring under fever, etc.; also those whose stomach is so weak that they cannot digest lawful foods; but hallucination must be guarded against, and religious and God-fearing physicians are to be consulted if it can easily be done. - St. Lig., ibid.
- Those who daily give themselves to labors so arduous and wearying to the stomach that after the manner of the sick they do not experience hunger and they reject foods; of this sort are those who live their life in mines, or in glass and iron workshops. In the number of these there also seem to be reckoned drivers who, driving public carriages by day and night over the space of several days, can scarcely swallow one or another little piece of food; but not those who slowly drive carriages, horses, or mules, and spend the night in inns.
- Travelers who find nothing in inns besides forbidden foods and cannot easily turn aside elsewhere. Yet they are bound seriously and insistently to ask for lawful foods. For the sole reason of a journey in no way exempts from the law of abstinence, even if perhaps it dispenses from fasting on account of too great weariness. Hence travelers cannot be excused on account of human fear, on account of fear of displeasing companions, on account of mockeries and other difficulties of this genus; otherwise almost all those making a journey would be exempted from this law.
- Finally, soldiers staying in camps or quarters and nourished in common at the expense of the Government are excepted.