Catholics have been urged to observe the ancient practice of not eating meat on Fridays.
The
custom of abstaining from meat as an act of penance for the death of
Christ will be re-established from September 16 - the first anniversary
of Pope Benedict's visit to Britain.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols,
the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, said the decision
to reintroduce the practice was taken at least partly as a result of the
papal visit, which had created ‘a fresh expression of self-confidence
and identity amongst Catholics’.
‘We observed there was a greater enthusiasm amongst many Catholics to observe the penance in Lent,’ the archbishop said.
‘What we've sought to do in this decision is establish a shared practice.’
The church said the ritual would be a ‘clear and distinctive mark of Catholic identity’ and would help to unite the faithful.
The
ruling marks a reversal from guidance issued by bishops in 1984, which
said Catholics could choose from a range of options how to mark Christ's
death on Fridays.
The archbishop said many Catholics would go
further by giving up alcohol, attending mass, reading the Bible or
fasting completely.
Practising Catholics who do not eat meat are encouraged to give up another staple food, Archbishop Nichols said.
The ruling was made at the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, which met in Leeds this week.
The bishops condemned plans by Education Secretary Michael Gove not
to recognise religious education under the ‘English Baccalaureate’ - a
qualification that will recognise success at GCSE in five core academic
subjects.
A resolution voted for by the bishops said they had
‘very serious reservations’ about the plans for the ‘EBacc’. History,
geography and modern languages would recognised but RE would not.
‘Lessening
the incentive for schools to offer RE as a subject examined at GCSE
will inevitably have implications for the quality and availability of RE
offered,’ the resolution said.
‘At a time of increasing religious and cultural literacy, effectively to downgrade RE seems unwise, to say the least.’
Father Tim Gardner, of the Catholic Education service, said he feared the subject would be ‘squeezed out’.
‘It will be pushed into tutor time, or citizenship lessons, and done in half an hour a week,’ he said.
A Department for Education spokesman said teaching RE would remain compulsory in schools to age 16.
‘Our
White Paper made clear that it is only one measure of performance and
should not be the limit of schools' ambitions for their pupils.
‘The
number of core subjects has been kept small deliberately to allow the
opportunity for wider study - there are valuable and rigorous
qualifications not in the EBacc, like RE, that pupils should be free to
take if they want.’