10 March 2016, The Tablet

Turn a meatless Lent into a veggie way of life...and protect the environment, says Liz Dodd


 

Lent this year has been an impetus for more Christians than usual to give up eating meat. Now some of them, inspired by Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ encyclical, and by research into the environmental impact of animal husbandry, are considering a permanent change in their lifestyle

On Easter Sunday many Catholics will come home from Mass to a much-anticipated lunch of roast lamb or chicken. Thanks to the efforts of a number of Catholic and secular environmental charities, it may well be their first taste of meat since Shrove Tuesday.

Abstaining from eating meat, dairy and eggs during Lent has been a tradition in the Church since the fifth century; now modern research into the environmental impact of rearing animals has given a renewed impetus to an ancient idea. Citing as inspiration Pope Francis’ call to action in the environmental encyclical, Laudato Si’, more Christians than ever opted to go vegan or vegetarian for Lent this year – and some have decided not to go back.

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User Comments (1)

Comment by: Luis Gutierrez
Posted: 11/03/2016 09:03:55
Giving up religious patriarchy should be a high priority for Christians. Everything is connected. I am very concerned about the conflation of patriarchal gender ideology and revealed truth in our sacramental theology:

Meditations on Man and Woman, Humanity and Nature
http://pelicanweb.org/CCC.TOB.html

These meditations are based on my understanding of St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Themes: Humanity, Patriarchy, Flesh, Sacraments, Church, Solidarity, Sustainability, Mercy, Evangelization

The patriarchal culture of male domination and female subordination is the root cause of social and ecological injustice. Thankfully, families are already evolving from sole male (father) headship to joint male-female (father-mother) headship. To continue the process narrated in Acts 15, when the Church transitioned out of the Jewish culture, now the Church must let go of the patriarchal culture, which predates biblical times but emerged *after* original sin (Genesis 3:16).