From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
Please excuse my ignorance. When a solemnity falls on a Friday, (e.g. in Octave of Easter) the abstinence from meat is lifted. However, if I decide to eat meat do I still have to substitute it for some other form of penance.
No. Under the universal law of the Latin Church, when a solemnity falls on a Friday, the Church does not require abstinence that day, and the Code does not impose some substitute penitential act in its place.
Canon 1251 states: “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.”
The key is the earlier can. 1249. Can. 1249 says all the faithful are bound by divine law to do penance, and that the Church prescribes certain common observances on penitential days, “according to the norm of the following canons.” Those following canons (including can. 1251) define what is juridically required. Can. 1251 expressly removes Friday abstinence when the day is a solemnity. The Code nowhere adds, “and then some other penance must be done instead.”
So, speaking strictly according to the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church, a Friday solemnity is an exception to the Friday abstinence law, and no alternate penance is required by the Code itself.
That said, an episcopal conference can legislate more specifically about penitential practice under can. 1253, so particular law could matter in a given country. But under the Code alone, the answer is no.
Naturally, you have free will and you can do some sort of penance on a Friday which is a solemnity (i.e., a major feast day). At the same time, doing penance on a solemnity seems to be in tension with the nature of a solemnity, doesn’t it?
