RE: Abstinence during Lent

Question from Marie on 2/4/2008:  
Canon 1251 -- Concerning gravies and broths.

The law of abstinence requires a Catholic 14 years of age until death to abstain from eating meat on Fridays in honor of the Passion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. Meat is considered to be the flesh and organs of mammals and fowl. Also FORBIDDEN are soups or gravies made from them. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are permitted, as are animal derived products such as margarine and gelatin which do not have any meat taste.

This is in answer to the question from Mary on 2-1-08.
Answer by Catholic Answers on 2/4/2008: 
Marie--

This is the exact quote from canon 1251 of the Code of Canon Law for the Latin rite of the Church:

Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the episcopal conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (source).
After researching the related documents, Catholic Answers' Director of Apologetics Jimmy Akin has written:

The law of abstinence forbids the eating dishes principally or substantially comprised of the flesh of land-dwelling mammals and birds (trace amounts of meat and other parts of the body besides meat do not count). According to the common and con[s]tant opinion of learned persons, as found in the older moral and pastoral theologies, the law of abstinence does not affect reptiles, amphibians, insects, or anything that is a water-dwelling animal (even if it is a mammal, so dolphin is okay). It also does not affect gravies or other sauces (even if these are made with meat), and it does not affect anything made from parts of land-dwelling animals other [than] their meat (so milk, cheese, eggs, things made with animal fat, and Jell-O, which comes from hooves, are okay) [source, emphasis added].
Of course, if someone provides me with documentation proving that the Church has definitively forbidden Latin-rite Catholics from eating soups or gravies made with meat broth or bits of meat on the days of abstinence, I would be happy to pass on the information and to make the necessary correction here.

Michelle Arnold
Catholic Answers