Q: I am a longstanding vegan, so when Lent comes each year there’s nothing for me to skip; no meat is already my regular routine. But at age 70, and even if I wasn’t vegan, is it true that seniors are no longer bound by Lenten fasting and abstinence requirements? (Indiana)
A: The short answer is that, even at age 70, you are still bound to abstinence from meat on Ash Wednesday and Lenten Fridays — even if, in your case as a vegan, you wouldn’t be doing anything special or “extra” in this regard.
Canon 1252 of the Code of Canon Law tells us that “the law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year.” This means that children under the age of 14 are not strictly required to abstain from meat on Fridays. Though of course younger children may still abstain even without being bound to do so, and I imagine that in practice many if not most children raised in Catholic families will wind up observing Friday abstinence along with the rest of their household.
Notably, the canon does not name an upper age limit for abstinence, so we can conclude that after the age of 14 this obligation is binding for the rest of a Catholic’s life.
In contrast, Canon 1252 does give us both an upper and lower age for observing the church’s law on fasting, stating: “The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year.” Or in other words, Catholics are required to fast on the church’s two obligatory fast days, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, from the time they turn 18 — that is, reaching the age of majority or legal adulthood — until age 59 i.e., when they are beginning their 60th year of life, a year which is completed on their 60th birthday.
The church’s law does not give an explicit explanation for these different age ranges, but my own thought is that this is likely due to the varying level of difficulty between these two penitential practices. Occasionally going without meat, especially for non-vegans who can easily make up the “missing” protein with eggs, dairy or seafood, is not a health risk and would be physically taxing for only a very small number of people.
On the other hand, fasting — which in the Latin (a.k.a. “Roman”) Catholic discipline means eating only one full meal in a day with two smaller meals or snacks permitted if necessary — can be more challenging. So it makes sense that the church would not seek to strictly impose this on young people who may still be growing, nor on senior citizens whose strength may be naturally diminishing due to age.
But it’s good to keep in mind that canon law only gives us the basic minimum of what we should do, largely so that all the faithful “may be joined together in a certain common practice of penance” (Canon 1249) for the sake of community and a corporate witness to the faith.
These bare-bones common requirements are therefore not necessarily a comprehensive blueprint for each individual to actually grow in holiness most effectively, and so it would be worthwhile for many Catholics to prayerfully discern whether they might benefit from freely taking on some additional penitential practices appropriate to their particular life and vocation.
For example, while a vegan or vegetarian already fulfills the law of abstinence by just sticking to their usual meat-free eating habits, it might make sense for them to consider adopting an additional penance for Lent. However, this would be an optional choice made for a deepening of their own personal spirituality.
Likewise, Canon 1252 concludes its discussion of age limits by noting that: “pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.”
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