The most festive day this year on the Chinese calendar was also the first Friday of Lent

Archbishop Agustinus Agus of Pontianak, who is based in West Kalimantan, where many Chinese Indonesians live, granted dispensation from the Lenten discipline of abstinence.

He urged them to abstain from eating meat but described this as their choice and said they could abstain on another day.

"If someone wants to eat pork, go ahead," he said.

"The most important thing in my mind is that local Catholic Chinese Indonesians have penitent hearts. Penitence is not something that is only shown during the Lenten season." Continue reading

Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott of Melbourne, Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett of Lismore and Bishop Michael Kennedy of Armidale are among prelates who would back the change.

Friday penance regulations were relaxed in Australia in 1985, allowing Catholics to perform an alternative form of penance.

This was in accord with teaching by Pope Paul VI on penance and with the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

Looking back at the decision to end Friday abstinence in Australia, Bishop Elliott said it was a "big pastoral and spiritual mistake".

"I can understand why that happened, in the mood of that era, but I believe it failed to take into account human psychology," he said.

"Allowing people to work out some penance was idealistic and unrealistic," Bishop Elliott said.

Since the change, Bishop Elliott said, most Catholics are unaware of or have forgotten the obligation entirely.

Having the Church decide what penance should be done would make it easier to remember and would promote stronger Catholic identity, he said.

Some bishops worry that the practice of Friday penance by Catholics has all but disappeared.

There has been no formal discussion on the issue at the Australian Catholic bishops' conference level.

In 2011, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales restored Friday abstinence.

Sources:

• National Catholic Reporter
• EWTN
• Image: Suffering with Joy