The late Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, used to point out that religions should be wary of discarding their traditions, because they have a habit of coming back into fashion. There can be no better example than the tradition of giving up meat on Fridays. This was formerly the rule for Catholics, an easily understood and simple prohibition which reminded people of Christ’s suffering on Good Friday. During Lent, the abstinence was extended over 40 days, along with the avoidance of eggs and dairy products.
That discipline was relaxed after the Second Vatican Council in favour of a laissez-faire approach; it was only relatively recently, in 2011, that the bishops of England and Wales reinstated Fish Fridays and not all Catholics have followed this ruling. It turns out that it is easier to do away with a discipline than to bring it back. But now the Church has support from an unexpected quarter: environmentalists are keen to encourage us to reduce our consumption of meat, and eating fish or vegetables on Fridays instead reduces our carbon footprint.
The Church of England, too, is coming round to this Catholic practice. At the General Synod, the Bishop of Norwich declared himself in favour of Fish Fridays during Lent, and indeed beyond. It is a step towards reaching the Church of England’s net-zero target. Last year there was a study by a Cambridge Catholic environmentalist which found that the reinstatement of the Friday abstinence rule led to 28 per cent of the 4.15 million Catholics in England and Wales reducing or cutting out meat. This, the study suggested, led to a reduction of 55,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. The study, published on the Social Science Research Network, said that if all Catholics in England and Wales revived the tradition it would lead to a 200,000-tonne reduction in CO2 emissions.
Of course, the motivation for abstinence during Lent and on Fridays is spiritual, but it is heartening to find that it is bolstered by the most powerful movement of the age, environmentalism. If giving up meat is good for the soul, it is good for creation as a whole. The new British fad of meat-free Mondays should beabandoned in favour of Fish Fridays, or indeed plant-based Fridays: Kate Ford leads the way in our food pages this month. And if we can manage to keep up abstinence from meat throughout Lent – Sundays and feast days excepted – so much the better for us and for the environment.
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