On September 16, 2011 the Catholic Church in England and Wales returned to
the obligatory practice of abstaining from eating meat on Friday. The allowance,
after Vatican II, for self-motivated substitutions to this rule, resulted in the
erroneous widespread belief that the rule itself had been abolished. Not
surprisingly, fasting gradually disappeared from the ordinary lives of many
Catholics. The Bishops of England and Wales are now re-establishing the practice
of Friday penance in order to unite Catholics and restore Catholic identity.

We are now in the season of Lent and the importance of fasting cannot be
understated. Sacred Scripture and Christian tradition teach that fasting is a
great help to avoid sin and all that leads to it. We first hear of the
commandment to fast in Genesis where man is prohibited from eating of the fruit
of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. After Adam and Eve's expulsion from
the garden fasting is proposed...