Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-08-16
FASTING A LAW !.
DOCTORS APPROVE
Explanation of the EccIesias-
ticaI Obligation-Even Cath
oIics Sometimes at Sea.

| Fasting Is subject on which
Catholics as we'll as Protestants are
| often at sea. I asked a Catholic II
restaurant "Why do you not fast
tomorrow" She herself had said
that it was not necessary. though II
was a Friday.
"Oh." said the girl, 81 don't know;
| the priest said So"
The New York Freeman's Journal
of August IS has an illuminative ar
ticle on the subject.
I Ecclesiastical Fast Days.
The paper quotes the Catholic en-
cyclopeodia, which says that In the
United States these are fasting days:
| All the days of Lent, the Fridays
of Advent, the ember days, the vigils
of Christmas and Pentecost. as well
as those august lad of the Assump-
t,on and October SD of All Saints.
| Fasting, essentially, consists IN
eating but one full meal in twenty
| four hours, and that at midday. IL
also implies the obligation OF ap-
| staining from flesh meat during the
same period, unless legitimate &C.
| clesiastical authority should grant
permission to eat meat.
The ecclesiastical law of Tasting en-
bodies a grave obligation incumbent
on all baptized individuals, capaple
of assuming obligations, provided they
have completed their twenty-nrst
year and are not otherwise excused
Inability to keep the law OF 1ast-
| ing and ineompatibility or fastlns
with the duties of ones state of life
suffice by their very nature to ex-
fin crtyish the ObligatiOn.
Those who Arc Excused.
Hence the sick, the infirm, con-
| velescents, delicate women, aged
persons, families whose members
cannot have the necessaries Tor
a. full meal at the same
time, or who have nothing put
bread, vegetables or such light FOOD
those to whom fasting brings loss OF
sleep or severe headaches, wives
whose fasting incurs their husbands,
dispIeasure, children whose fasting
rouses their parents anger; in a
word, all who cannot comply Win
the obligation of fasting without I'M
dergoing more than ordinary hard
shin. are excused on account OF their
inability to fulfil the obligation.
In like manner, unusual fatigue or
bodily weakness, experienced In dis-
charging ones duty, and superin-
duced by fasting, lifts the obligation.
However, not every sort OF labor,
but only such as is hard and pro-
tracted, excuses from the obligation
of fasting, and these two conditions
are not confined to manual labor, but
may be equally verified with regard
to brain work.
Mental Labor Exempts-
Hence bookkeepers, stenographers,
telegraph operators, legal advisers
and many others whose occupations
are largely mental, are entitled to ex-
emption on this score, quite as well as
day laborers and tradesmen.
Lawfully constituted superiors may
dispense their subjects from the obli-
CATION of fasting, and, accordingly,
the Pope may always and everywhere
grant valid dispensations from this
obligation, his dispensations being
licit when sufficient reasons underlie
the grant.
In particular cases, and for good
reasons. bishops may grant dispense
tons in their respective dioceses, but
unless empowered by indult, they are
not at liberty to dispense all their
subjects simultaneously. Priests
charged with the care Of souls may
dispense individuals for good reason.
Superiors of religious communities
may dispense individual members of
their respective communities, provided
sufficient reason exists. Confessors are
not qualified to grant these dispense
tions unless they have been explicitly
delegated thereunto.
1t is of interest to note that some
of the first medical authorities declare
their belief In the efficacy Of fasting
| occasionally, too. of total abstinence
from food for a day or so-in treating
their patients, the truth being that
the average pergcn eats really too
much.