March 25 is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, a day that commemorates the actual incarnation of Jesus Christ. It marks the announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit to be called Jesus and marks the beginning of Mary’s pregnancy with Jesus (Luke 1:26–38).

 

Did you also know that this year, on Friday, March 25, the faithful are not obligated to abstain from meat?

 

According to Rev. Joseph F. Jaskierny, the Adjutant Judicial Vicar of the Diocese of Rockford, in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the obligation to abstain from eating meat (or some other food determined by the conference of bishops) binds on every Friday of the year except when a solemnity falls on a Friday (c. 1251). 

 

In the United States, the conference of bishops decided that during Lent, Catholics must abstain from eating meat on Fridays, and on the non-Lenten Fridays of the year, Catholics must abstain from eating meat or do some other penance.

 

Because the Annunciation has the liturgical rank of a solemnity, the obligation to abstain from meat does not bind on March 25 this year even though it is a Friday of Lent. 

 

St. Joseph’s Day (March 19) is also a solemnity, so when St. Joseph’s Day falls on a Friday of Lent, the obligation to abstain from meat does not bind. Even though a popular day of celebration, St. Patrick’s Day is not a solemnity, so abstinence still applies for that day when it falls on a Friday. There are times however, that diocesan bishops will dispense the faithful of their dioceses from the obligation to abstain from meat when St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Friday of Lent.

 

If a solemnity were to fall on a non-Lenten Friday, then (in the U.S.) the obligation to abstain from meat or do another penance would not bind.

 

The law that abstinence does not bind on a Friday that is a solemnity is in the 1983 Code of Canon Law. The 1917 Code of Canon Law (the previous Code) had a somewhat similar provision, but there were differences. One such difference was that the obligation for fasting and abstinence under the 1917 Code of Canon Law always applied during Lent.