It ’s Catholic tradition to abstain from corrode meat on Fridays during Lent . If you need to observe the religious practice session without reducing your protein intake , do n’t worry : The church ’s musical theme of meat differs from your standard vegetarian ’s . By the Vatican ’s definition , most aquatic animal do n’t stipulate as meat . In addition to fish , beavers , muskrat , and capybaras are satisfactory to eat on the Fridays leading up to Easter , grant toFood & Wine .
During Lent , many Catholics deny themselves earthly pleasures to honor Jesus ’s ritual killing . Abstaining from meat has nothing to do with animal rightfield ; instead , it ’s hypothesise to be a interruption from an element traditionally catch asindulgent and luxurious . That ’s why boeuf , porc , and domestic fowl are debate meat but fish is n’t . Fish was remember of as a " round-eyed " source of protein in the Middle Ages , whereas meat from land animals was considered rich and therefore more " sinful . "
As is the grammatical case with the law of most religion , Catholics have find creative ways around this dominion over the centuries . Between the 16th and 18th centuries , a clergyman in Venezuela write to the Vatican asking if it was alright to eatcapybarasduring times of fasting . The South American gnawer ( the largest on Earth ) are certainly not fish , but because they spend a lot of time swimming , the church resolve to sort them as such . The Vatican has also made exceptions for other semi - aquatic mammalian like beavers andmuskrats . reptile that live on in water , like turtles and alligators , qualify as Pisces during Lent as well .
eat mammal meat during a Lenten Friday may seem like cheat , but this loophole does n’t needfully degrade the significance of the fast . And outside certain parts of the universe , the exceptions are rarely taken advantage of . That ’s why McDonald ’s introduced theFilet - atomic number 8 - Fishto judicature Catholics in the 1960s instead of the McMuskrat .
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