“But in all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much
patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in
seditions, in labors, in watchings, in fastings” (2 Cor. 6:4-5).
Second objection: “Isn’t the Catholic practice of abstaining from
meat on Fridays one of the ‘doctrine of demons’ Paul spoke about to
Timothy (1 Tim. 4:1-5)?”
The full text of St. Paul’s words of warning reads as follows: “Now the
Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by
giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the
pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and
enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with
thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth” (1 Tim. 4:1-3).
The Catholic Church for several centuries enjoined abstinence from meat
on Fridays. Since 1966, Friday is rather designated as a “day of penance;”
abstinence from meat is only compulsory on Ash Wednesday and Good
Friday. Nevertheless, it is still the common practice of many faithful
Catholics to abstain from meat on Fridays. On other days, they eat meat as
other people do.
That St. Paul had in mind the Catholic practice of abstaining from meat on
Fridays when he pronounced the above prophecy is out of the question,
particularly in view of the well-known practice of the Prophet Daniel: “In
those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. I ate no delicacies, no
meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full
three weeks” (Dan. 10:2-3). The Catholic practice is similar in essence to
Daniel’s, who undertook a temporary abstinence of meat for penitential
reasons. Daniel was hardly one to practise a “doctrine of demons.”
Rather, St. Paul was speaking of those Gnostic heretics, such as the
Manicheans and Albigensians, who believed that matter was the creation of
the Evil Principle and hence intrinsically evil. Consequently, they believed
that the eating of meat was also evil and abstained from it perpetually. This
view is akin to those of modern-day vegetarian “New Agers” and Seventh
Day Adventists, who still insist that pork, oysters, prawns, rabbits are
forbidden meats. St. Paul saw no difficulty with the idea of giving up meat,
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