I gave up tact for Lent
John Litle
Frankly Obnoxious
So, I was sitting in CJ's Friday night, enjoying the best hamburger this side of the continental divide, and it struck me: Why would anyone pass up this glorious, seasoned, BBQ-sauce-slathered, onion-coated, mouth-watering, slab of beef in exchange for a square of cod and potato chips?
The answer for me is simple — way back in the late first millennium, fishermen in Venice were starving, so the Mother Church, who's had an obligation to fishermen since the calling of Simon, stepped in and said, "Hey everyone, we're going to eat fish on Fridays, yeah, because, um, to make a sacrifice." Lots of things get justified that way in Catholicism. So it was written, so it was done.
The fishermen were happy, so the Church was happy. The people were feeling the pride of their ascetic sacrifice by eating fish (is it really so different from meat?) and so it passed on throughout the ages and gained some sort of dogmatic significance.
Excellent. That's all the reason I need to be ecstatic about a Church doctrine. It really upsets me when people complain that you should be able to eat meat on Fridays.
It upsets me even more when Notre Dame students complain that there is no meat in the dining halls on Friday's during Lent.
And let me tell you why. First, there is fish, and again, if you think about it, there's not much difference between meat and fish. In fact, I propose that the fish was never consulted in the whole "meat" classification system. I contend that most fish would consider themselves meat as well. That's not the point, however.
I can't stand all the whining that you aren't making a sacrifice if meat is not an option in the dining hall. This argument is complete bunk on two counts (and a third).
First off, here I am on a Friday, eating meat at CJ's. So you can get meat on a Friday, all you have to do is the following: Forgo 40s at four, get dressed, walk a quarter-mile to D6, get your car (if you have one), drive three miles to CJ's, order, wait and pay cash for your meal. That's not much of an effort at all, so first, it is a sacrifice because of the ease at which you could obtain meat as an alternative. Quit your whining.
The next reason this argument is bad is that as I discussed earlier, not eating meat on Friday's was never meant to be a sacrifice in the first place. It was a Church bailout of a failing fishing industry (which only happened to be owned by the Bishops themselves) in the 900s. It was the earliest form of social-welfare, so who cares whether or not it is a sacrifice.
The last reason that sacrifice argument is out the door is that Notre Dame is a Catholic school, and when you decided to come here, you decided to agree to every single Catholic thing that is present on campus. If you don't like it, you're free to leave. In fact, we don't even want you here. This place is Catholic. If the University decided to persecute Jews, turn a blind eye to mass-murder or extort money from all the students promising a false salvation, you have no right to complain. After all, this place is Catholic, and you knew that when you got here.
I sometimes hear the argument that the university is ignoring the 15 percent minority of those on campus who are not Catholic. First, I defer to my argument that Notre Dame is a Catholic school. And secondly, let's be honest, since when has Notre Dame cared about minorities? If they can't be bothered to care about an ethnic minority or a sexual minority, what makes anyone think they'd care about a religious minority — especially through food sales.
The final argument people make is that it is economically feasible to provide meat to students on Fridays, even if 85 percent of students didn't eat the meat. This is totally bogus as well. A simple analysis of economics shows that at somewhere near $8.80 a meal, for 14 meals a week, plus 220 flex points, (assuming the average student only uses about 10 meals a week and each flex point is worth about two and a half real dollars) that Food Services is running chronically low on money. Couple that with the recent rise in pop prices to $1.25, and you can easily visualize the economic crisis that would be caused by a single tray of sliced turkey at the sandwich station.
In sum, Notre Dame is fully justified in enforcing meatless Fridays, just as it is justified in enforcing opposite-sex-less dorms. Stop complaining that Notre Dame students — don't you know that you're sheep — fall in line like the rest.
John Litle is a junior MIS major who wants to let the community in on the fact that he's being sarcastic. His column appears every other Tuesday.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Tuesday, February 19, 2002
