Catholic Bible 101

This is a great article from Catholic Education.org. It says that the Catholic Church in England has brought back the Friday practice of abstaining from meat the year round.  The American Bishops did away with this mandatory practice, instead saying that Catholics could chose their own Friday penance, aside from eating fish or veggies. Unfortunately, the second part - doing another type of penance - is something that most Catholics have never heard about, certainly not from the pulpit on Sunday.  So take the time to consider what your penance will be each and every Friday of the year.

From the referenced article, Fr. Raymond J.  De Souza:

According to the universal law of the Church, all Fridays, save for those which coincide with solemn feasts (e.g. St. John the Baptist this year), are days of abstinence: no eating meat. But the code of canon law permits the bishops of various countries to modify the rule. Most countries did just that some 40 years ago, saying that while the obligation to do penance held, each Catholic could choose for himself what that penance might be."