Going without meat gets downright easy

At the St. Mary's Friday Night Dinners, held every Friday evening during Lent, about 110 pounds of haddock is purchased for each fish fry.
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Going Without Meat Gets Downright Easy

At the St. Mary's Friday Night Dinners
By Katie Beth Ryan
Valley News Staff Writer

ome Friday, meat consumption is a big no-no for Myrna Parker. Even beyond the six-week observance of Lent -- when Roman Catholics are expected to abstain from meat consumption on Fridays -- Parker doesn't eat meat on Fridays year-round.

“It's the way I was brought up, so it's easy to follow,” the Springfield, Vt., resident said, digging into a plate of fried haddock with fries and coleslaw at a recent Friday night fish fry held at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Springfield. The practice is second nature for Parker and other Catholics attending the fish fry, held every Friday evening during Lent, though the reasoning behind forfeiting meat on Friday isn't always clear.

Growing up Catholic, “you knew you didn't eat meat, and that was it,” said Joan Alles of Springfield, although it has never been an onerous rule for her. “I don't really like meat,” she said.

The Christian season of Lent is meant to be a time of penance and refraining from self-indulgence, said Father Peter Williams, the pastor at St. Mary's, and many Christians will also give up something else for Lent, such as chocolate or sweets.

The Catholic rule regarding meat consumption “sort of originated as a sacrifice,” he explained. “Christ died in flesh, and so we don't eat the flesh of animals and birds as a sign of respect.”

Catholics were once expected to forego meat every Friday, though the rule was relaxed as a result of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s to include just Lenten Fridays, as well as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. But in place of meat, Catholics are encouraged to see every Friday as a fast from self-indulgence, and find something else to do without.

Treating Friday as a day to do without is something the Olis family of New Britain, Conn., strives to do year-round.

“We make other sacrifices,” said Eva Olis, stopping in at the St. Mary's fish fry with six of her eight children during a visit with her sister in Springfield. Outside of Lent, the Olis children may give up dessert or some other indulgence on Friday. On the Fridays leading up to Easter Sunday, they eat vegetarian with little complaint.

“They get used to it,” Olis said. “You incorporate it into your schedule.”

To make sure they comply with church teachings, many Catholics plan ahead so they're not scrounging for vegetarian options on Fridays. Parker, for example, said that a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup are a standard Friday afternoon lunch during Lent, and she keeps her pantry stocked with cans of cream of mushroom and broccoli cheddar soups.

Of course, finding a meatless Friday night supper isn't hard for St. Mary's fish fry devotees, who include a fair number of non-Catholics. With a choice of baked or fried haddock, baked potatoes or French fries, a side of coleslaw, and pink lemonade, the fish dinners have grown so popular that chef Michael Knoras buys about 110 pounds of haddock for each week's dinner; 156 people attended last Friday’s fish dinner.

The haddock fillets took a long journey to get to St. Mary's, where Lenten fish fries have been a staple of parish life since 1998. “This fish was caught in Norwegian waters on a Russian trawler by Chinese fishermen, and distributed out of Canada,” Knoras said proudly last Friday, taking a break from the warm and crowded kitchen at St. Mary's Nolin-Murray Center, where cooks in blue smocks scurried to get pieces of haddock baked in the oven and haddock fried in deep fryers onto plates for blue-smocked waiters to deliver.

The choice of fish is also what sets St. Mary's fish fries apart; fish fries and restaurants tend to serve cod instead of haddock.

Cod is “very oily,” Knoras said, “and people just … eh, they don't like oily fish.”

Going without meat on a Friday may be a sacrifice for some, but it's not such a burden for many of St. Mary's parishioners, who look forward to the haddock dinner all week long.

“It's so fresh and so moist,” said Jackie Stankevich of Springfield.

“And she doesn't have to cook,” added her husband Walter. “And I don't have to do the dishes.”