VATICAN CORNER
Continued…Sometimes living things get classified not according to their biology, but instead get classified for convenience or for financial reasons. An example is the tomato, which grows from a flowering plant and contains seeds, which makes it by definition a fruit rather than a vegetable. However in 1893, the US Supreme Court ruled that the tomato is a vegetable for reasons of a vegetable import tariff. Similarly, the Catholic Church in the 17th century, declared that the beaver, the large furry- dam building animal found in rivers around the world was not a warm blooded mammal, but instead a fish. There were once between 60 and 400 million beavers in North America. The native American Indians hunted beaver in a sustainable manner for its meat and it was a common food. However when the Europeans came they brought an insatiable desire for beaver fur pelts and for beaver castoreum, a secretion used in perfume and cologne (even today). The beaver population rapidly declined. The Europeans settlers also brought Catholicism and converted a large number of the indigenous Indians. The Indians and the French settlers loved beaver meat but eating (red) meat was forbidden by the Church on holy days which back then made up almost half the year. The first Bishop of Quebec, Francois de Laval, asked his superiors in the Church if his flock would be permitted to eat beaver meat on holy days. The answer came back “yes” and was probably based on the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, which classified animals as much on their habitat as their anatomy. Since the semi-aquatic beaver was a skilled swimmer, the Church declared it to be a fish for dietary purposes. The Church also classified other semi-aquatic animals such as the capybara and muskrat as fish. The capybara, the largest rodent in the world is still commonly eaten in Venezuela during Lent even today. Whale meat became a staple of the European diet partly because of the Church’s forbiddance of (red) meat. Whales, seals and porpoise were also considered fish by the Church for dietary purposes. Abstinence is a form of penance expressing sorrow and contrition for our wrongdoing. Abstinence is sober way to practice self-denial to grow in holiness. There are countless options for simple Friday meatless meals: pancakes, soup, macaroni and cheese, eggs, cheese, and of course, fish. By the way, thanks to trapping regulations the beaver population is rebounding and now includes some 6 to 12 million individuals.
Sources: scientificamerican.com, quora.com, firstthings.com, neatorama.com, catholichotdish.com, wikipedia.com