Deeply Catholic tradition helps fight climate change

In 2011 Catholic Bishops of England and Wales they asked their parishioners to return to the now abandoned tradition of not eating meat on Fridays. The goal, as in the beginning of this religious custom, was to honor Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion. But there was a much more useful result than this tribute: carbon emissions in this part of the planet were reduced as positively as unexpectedly. Thus, contributing to the fight against climate change, of course.

This is the conclusion of a recently published study by scientists from the University of Cambridge. It not only gives figures of what happened after the decision of these Catholic bishops. They also note that if Pope Francisco if you ask for something similar for the entire Catholic population, the environmental benefit will be enormous.

In fact, this is not so far-fetched, since the supreme pontiff has already called take action against climate change. Now it is in your hands to materialize these measures. And all this without leaving the traditions of the Catholic religion. Of course, we did not expect such a use of religion.

Where did the Catholic tradition of not eating meat on Fridays come from?

It has become a Catholic tradition not to eat meat on Fridays. in the ninth century by Pope Nicholas I.

According to this, Catholics were not supposed to eat meat, although they could eat fish, crabs or frogs. It is curious what was considered meat and what was not. Especially when you consider that in the 17th century, beavers began to be considered fish in order to eat them in Lentwhen the tradition of Fridays continued for many more days. But that’s different.

In any case, over time, the custom don’t eat meat on Fridays was discarded. Even the Catholic Church itself has ceased to advise its parishioners. Only a few higher ranks of the church hierarchy tried to maintain the tradition, which fell under its own weight. Until now. And the fact is, thanks to these bishops of England and Wales, we have the most curious weapon against climate change.

Other religions can also fight climate change

The authors of the study acknowledge as a limitation that they only focused on the Catholic religion. However, remember that other religions they have traditions that meat consumption is limited. For this reason, it might be possible to further combat climate change through these measures.

There would be no need to mask measures climate activity. Practitioners of every religion can reduce meat consumption simply according to their faith. One thing is clear: religion is useless if there is no planet on which to practice it. Apart from the crucifixion, this is another good reason not to eat meat on Fridays.