Please provide a link to an official document on the rules of Lent for Filipino Roman Catholics (or non-Filipino Roman Catholics who are in the Philippines for Lent or something) specifically and where the rules aren't mentioned only in passing or in an FAQ. Last night, my parent told me that my parent heard the only days of abstinence are ash wednesday and good friday, even though I've been practicing every friday of lent (plus ash wed and good fri) for over a decade. I have spent over an hour on this but could not find such reference. What I've gathered so far: 1. According to this website , the US Roman Catholic law of not having meat on all Fridays of Lent is not necessarily applicable to Roman Catholics who aren't American (or who aren't in the US). It says > If you are outside the United States, check with the bishops' conference for your country for specific fasting rules. And this is really under the Roman Catholic section and not the Eastern Catholic section. 2. I notice phjesuits.org mentions in number 5 but not in number 2 . What's up with that? Additionally - 2.1. It's only an FAQ, so, ostensibly, this isn't quite a primary source. - 2.2. It doesn't seem to specify Filipino Roman Catholics. Is the article implying this is applicable to all Roman Catholics (eg even in Ireland on St. Patrick's Day and in Hong Kong on Chinese New Year, whenever either of those two holidays fall on a day of abstinence - Ah well, maybe that's what 'solemnity' covers, in which case 'solemnity' is local)? 3. I was able to find A SINGLE BUT ONLY A SINGLE official reference from the CBCP saying that this applies to Filipino Roman Catholics but mentions only in passing as part of an article about love and stuff. - 3.1. Note that there's no mention of 'solemnity' here. Happy Lent!

The canon law requires Catholics to hold every Friday (except certain solemnities) as a abstinence day (e.g. abstaining from meat), but also grants the episcopal conferences the possibility to require the abstinence from other foods or even to substitute other forms of penance. The applicable canons read as follows: > Can. 1250 The penitential days and times in the universal Church are **every Friday of the whole year** and the season of Lent. > > Can. 1251 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. and > Can. 1253 The conference of bishops can determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence as well as **substitute other forms of penance**, especially works of charity and exercises of piety, in whole or in part, for abstinence and fast. I've heard that e.g. many US-Catholics do only refrain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent (presumably making use of such an episcopal decision). Since I grew up in Germany this seemed rather odd to me. Question (bundled together but related): 1. Which (other) Episcopal Conferences institute such alternatives to abstinence? 2. Is it rather common or seldom to limit abstinence to such few occurrances? 3. What other forms of penance are substituted in these cases? ---------------------- **Note:** It seems the terminology in this question got a bit mixed up (See AthanasiusOfAlex' comment). In English "fasting" is currently described as eating less than two meals a day (as on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday in the Latin church); "abstinence" simply means no meat. This question is about the latter.