On the Second Precept of the Church: To Observe Fasting and Abstinence on Certain Days

I say 1st. It belongs to the supreme ecclesiastical authority alone to establish, transfer, or abolish days of abstinence and fasting common to the universal Church. Ordinaries of places can prescribe peculiar days of abstinence and fasting for their dioceses or places only by way of an act. - Cf. Can. 1244. - Let what was said in n. 327 be compared.

I say 2nd. The law of abstinence forbids eating meat and broth from meat, but not eggs, dairy foods, and any condiments whatsoever, even from the fat of animals (Can. 1250).

I say 3rd. § 1. The law of fasting prescribes that only one meal be taken per day; but it does not forbid taking some food morning and evening, while nevertheless the approved custom of places concerning the quantity and quality of foods is observed.

§ 2. Nor is it forbidden to mix meat and fish in the same refection, nor to exchange the evening refection with dinner (Can. 1251).

I say 4th. § 1. The law of abstinence alone is to be observed on each Friday.

§ 2. The law of abstinence and fasting together is to be observed on Ash Wednesday, the Fridays and Saturdays of Lent and the Ember days, and on the vigils of Pentecost, of the Mother of God assumed into heaven, of All Saints, and of the Nativity of the Lord.

§ 3. The law of fasting alone is to be observed on all the remaining days of Lent.

§ 4. On Sundays or feasts of precept the law of abstinence, or of abstinence and fasting, or of fasting only, ceases, except for a feast in the time of Lent; nor are vigils anticipated. Likewise it ceases on Holy Saturday after noon (Can. 1252).

I say 5th. By these canons nothing is changed concerning particular indults, concerning vows of any physical or moral person, or concerning the constitutions and rules of any approved religion or institute, whether of men or of women living in common, even without vows (Can. 1253).

I say 6th. § 1. All who have completed the seventh year of age are held by the law of abstinence.

§ 2. All from the completed twenty-first year of age to the begun sixtieth are bound by the law of fasting (Can. 1254).

The aforesaid canons clearly set forth what it is licit to eat, how much to eat, what kind of thing to eat, and when to eat, according to the law of abstinence and fasting.

The precept of abstinence, of fasting and abstinence together, and of fasting alone, although according to the common opinion it admits smallness of matter, obliges under grave matter all those for whom it is enacted. For the matter of the law of each is grave; the law is held as grave by all theologians, and therefore it simply obliges gravely, whether you regard the law of abstinence alone, or of fasting alone, or of both conjointly.

But since the feasts among us which are of precept remain the same as before, "for these, not for the rest ... the faithful can enjoy the relaxation or dispensation from observance of the law of fasting and abstinence granted by the very recent Motu Proprio." Cf. Sacred Congregation of the Council, Aug. 28, 1911.

"In Apostolic indults, by which mitigations or dispensations are conceded from abstinence and fasting in regions within and outside Europe, especially in Latin America," there are comprehended "Religious families, as regards abstinence and fasting prescribed by the general law of the Church, unless religious are excluded from the indult"; but as regards the aforesaid, there are not comprehended those things "established by their own Rules and Constitutions, unless in the indult mention is expressly made of this dispensation"; "therefore those not observing abstinence and fasting do indeed transgress the Rule and Constitution, but not the law of the Church, and therefore incur only the fault and penalty established by the Constitutions and Rules." Thus the Sacred Congregation for Religious, Sept. 1, 1912.