• Fast even after turning 59, if they can, to be more generous with Our Lord;
• Fast and abstain until Easter Sunday morning, rather than ending these Lenten observances at noon Holy Saturday; (the 1955 extension of fast and abstinence until midnight was historically connected with the 1955 changes in the Holy Week liturgy. The merits of those liturgical changes are a separate issue.)
• Have children begin to abstain from meat with the rest of the family, before the rules absolutely require it.  This would send the right message to younger children (and not harm their health in the least).  This shows them that a serious Catholic does not ask, “How little can I do?”

1. The traditional (pre-1983) rules required fasting beginning at 21 until turning 59, but the Church’s fasting law is perhaps the only occasion when the new code is stronger (in a very narrow respect)—it requires fasting beginning at age 18—although only on a (wimpy) two days per year.  We need more fasting (and other penance), not less, and so it is a good thing we are required to begin fasting at 18. Because we recognize the validity of the pope who issued the law that fasting begins at 18 years old, we must obey that law because it does not oppose the Traditional Catholic Faith and morals.
2. Contrary to what the conciliar church does in practice, the new code of Canon Law (despite its countless flaws) does require abstinence on all Fridays. Although the 1983 Code of Canon Law—canon 1251—does allow a national bishops’ conference to substitute the penance of abstaining from a different food, we are not aware of any national conference of bishops which has done so.

   Further, promoting collective authority of the national conferences of “bishops” is a conciliar error and one of the countless evils of Vatican II (collegiality). This conciliar evil aims both to diminish the monarchical authority of the pope and to diminish the authority of individual “bishops” in their own dioceses.

   Faithful and informed Catholics know that conciliar ordinations and consecrations are inherently doubtful and so must be treated as invalid. For an explanation why this is true, read these articles:

   • ../faith/new-ordination-doubtful.html
   • https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B49oPuI54eEGd2RRcTFSY29EYzg/view
   • https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B49oPuI54eEGZVF5cmFvMGdZM0U/view

   Although there are inherent doubts concerning the “ordinations” and “consecrations” of conciliar “bishops”, this does not mean that those clergy do not possess the jurisdiction of their offices (for governing). For a full explanation of this principle, read this article: ../faith/against-sedevacantism.html#section-10
   Indult groups like the “new” SSPX wrongly follow the soft conciliar practice of asserting that no abstinence is mandatory under pain of mortal sin, on most Fridays of the year. This soft practice ignores:
   • the traditional law of the Church;
   • even the lax 1983 code of Canon Law they purport to follow; and
   • the fact that the bishops’ conferences have never specified any other food from which Catholics must abstain on Fridays instead of meat.

Traditional Catholic Fast and Abstinence Recommendations

Appendix: How Catholic fasting law relaxed over the 1900s