Some time around 1964, Gary Czyzynski and I drove over from St. Joe's High School to the new McDonald's across from Villa Angela Academy--right on Lakeshore Boulevard near Euclid Beach in Cleveland. I ordered a fish fillet sandwich, and Gary ordered a cheeseburger. I was astonished. I couldn't believe that my Catholic friend ate a hamburger on a Friday. It was the first time that I ever saw a Catholic eat meat on Friday. I wondered about this sin, about how Gary would pay for it.
Of course the prohibition on eating meat on Friday simply faded away in the mid to late 1960s. And we who had been brought up with an intense sense of sin wondered what God would do with the fallen Catholics roasting in hell because they violated the Friday meat ban.
I had a friend years ago, Chuck Matthei, who fasted totally on Fridays. Chuck was not a Catholic and I never quite understood the roots of his fasting. He did tell me once that he fasted to be in solidarity with the poor and hungry of the world.
Chuck was such an amazing guy that I have no doubt he was telling me the truth. Chuck lived his rather short life in solidarity with the poor, with the oppressed, and those suffering from violence and war. His motivations for fasting were certainly better than mine back in 1964.
As for Gary Czyzynski, I don't know what happened to him. I don't think he will roast in hell for his "sin" of eating meat on a Friday.
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