Can Catholics eat meat on May 2nd? It depends on the diocese..

On Friday, May 2, many bishops granted dispensation from abstinence from meat food. In order to be able to usage it, however, another act of penance, as prescribed in the decree, must be fulfilled. We encourage you to make certain that specified dispensation is given in the diocese in which we will be present.

Every Friday – apart from celebrations – Catholics have abstinence to meat food, and its breaking is simply a grave sin. However, diocesan bishops are allowed to grant dispensation from this obligation, and many hierarchs have benefited from this privilege on Friday 2 May. This day falls in the mediate of a long weekend and bishops want to let their faithful, for example, to meet at the grill. Since this dispensation is valid throughout the diocese, visitors can besides usage it.

However, not all diocesan bishops have given specified a dispensation and it is so worth checking whether it will apply in the diocese, where we will be present on 2 May.

It should besides be remembered that, in place of fasting from meat, bishops may commit the beneficiaries of dispensation to another penance – specified as prayer or charity. In this case, eating meat without gathering the prescribed condition besides results in grave sin. This “substitution” act keeps the penitence of Friday as the day of Christ's death.

– I am obliged that those who usage dispensation should offer any prayer that day in the intention of choosing the Holy Father, and I encourage them to physically support the poor. – wrote Archbishop Adrian Galbas in the decree.

– Those wishing to benefit from the exemption are obliged to refuse the prayer “Our Father” in the intention of vocations to priesthood and consecrated life – wrote Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda, the average of Gdańsk.

AF