Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/873

 FAST

791

FATALISM

obligation incumbent on all baptized individuals ca- pable of assuming obligations provided they have com- pleted their twenty-first year and are not otherwise excused. This doctrine is merely a practical applica- tion of a universally accepted principle of moralists and canonists whereby the character of obligation in human legislation is deemed serious or light in so far as the material element involved in the law bears or does not bear a close and intimate relation to the attain- ment of a prescribed end. Inasmuch as fasting con- sidered as a function of the virtue of temperance bears such a relation to the promotion of man's spiritual well-being (see Lenten Preface in the Roman Missal), it certainly embodies an obligation generally serious. To this a priori reason may be added what Church his- tory unfolds concerning the grave penalties attached to transgressions of this law. The sixty-ninth of the Apostolic Canons (see C.vnons, Apostolic) decrees the degradation of bishops, priests, deacons, lectors or chanters, failing to fast during Lent, and the excom- munication of laymen, who fail in this way. The fifty-sixth canon of the TruUan Synod (692) contains similar regulations. Finally Alexander VII (24 Sept., 1665) condemned a proposition formulated in the fol- lowing terms: Whoso violates the ecclesiastical law of fasting to which he is bound does not sin mortally un- less he acts through contempt or disobedience (Denz- inger, op. cit., no. 112.3). Though this obligation is generally serious, not every infraction of the law is mortally sinful. Whenever transgressions of the law fail to do substantial violence to the law, venial sins are committed. Inability to keep the law of fasting and incompatibility of fasting with the duties of one's state in life suffice by their very nature, to extinguish the obligation because as often as the obligation of positive laws proves extremely burdensome or irksome the obligation is forthwith lifted. Hence, the sick, the infirm, convalescents, delicate women, persons sixty years old and over, families whose members cannot have the necessaries for a full meal at the same time, or who have nothing but bread, vegetables or such like viands, those to whom fasting brings loss of sleep or severe headaches, wives whose fasting incurs their husbands' indignation, children whose fasting arouses their parents' wrath; in a word, all who cannot com- ply with the obligation of fasting without undergoing more than ordinary hardship are excused on account of their inability to fulfil the obligation. In like man- ner unusual fatigue or bodily weakness experienced in discharging one's duty and superinduced by fasting lifts the obligation of fasting. However, not every sort of laliour, but only such as is hard and protracted, excuses from the obligation of fasting. These two conditions are not confined to manual labour, but may be equally verified with regard to brain work. Hence bookkeepers, stenographers, telegraph opera- tors, legal advisers and many others whose occupa- tions are largely mental are entitled to exemption on this score, quite as well as day-labourers or tradesmen. When these two causes begetting exemption by their very nature, do not exist, lawfully constituted supe- riors may dispense their subjects from the obligation of fasting. Accordingly the Sovereign Pontiff may always and everywhere grant valid dispen.siations from this obligation. His dispensations will be licit when sufficient reasons underlie the grant. In particular cases and for good reasons, bishops may grant dispen- sations in their respective dioceses. Unless empow- ered by Indult they are not at liberty to dispense all their subjects simultaneously. It is to be noted that usually bishops issue just before Lent circulars or pas- torals, which are read to the faithful or otherwise made public, and in which they make known, on the authority of the Apostolic See, the actual status of ob- ligation, dispen.sations, etc. Priests charged with the care of souls may dispense indivirluals for good reason. Superiors of religious communities may dispense indi-

vidual members of their respective communities pro- vided sufficient reason exists. Confessors are not qualified to grant these dispensations unless they have been explicitly delegated thereunto. They may, however, decide whether sufficient reason exists to lift the obligation.

Those who have permission from the Holy See to eat meat on proliibited days, may avail themselves of this concession at their full meal, not only on days of abstinence but also on fasting days. When age, in- firmity or labour releases Christians from fasting, they are at liberty to eat meat as often as they are justified in taking food, provided the use of meat is allowed by a general indult of their bishop (Sacred Penitentiaria, 16 Jan., 1834). Finally, the Holy See has repeatedly declared that the use of lard allowed by Indult com- prehends butter or the fat of any animal.

No student of ecclesiastical discipline can fail to perceive that the obligation of fasting is rarely ob- served in its integrity nowadays. Conscious of the conditions of our age, the Church is ever shaping the requirements of this obligation to meet the best inter- ests of her children. At the same time, no measure of leniency in this respect can eliminate the natural and divine positive law imposing mortification and pen- ance on man on account of sin and its consequences. (Council of Trent, Sess. VI, can. xx.)

Duchesne, Chrittian Worship, lis Orifjin and Evolution (tr. London. 1904); Slater, Manual of Moral Theoloail (New York, 190S); Spirago-Cx,arke, The Catechism Explained {New Yot\i, 1900); Hefele. A History of the Councils (tr. Edinburg, 1S96); St. Thomas. Summa 2a 2a!. Q., CXLVII; Thomassin, Trails des Jeunes de VEglise (Paris, 16S0); Laymann, Theologia Mo- ralis (Padua, 1733); Noldin, Summa Theologia: Moralis (Inns- bruck, 1902); BiLLUART, Summa Sancti Thomce V, Dissert. II. For exhaustive studies on tlie antiquities of ecclesiastical fast- ing (nature, motives, times, etc.) see Linsenmayr, Entwicke- lung der kirchliehen Fastendisciplin (Municii, 1877); and Von Funk, Die Entwickelung des Osterfaslens, in his Kircheng. Ab- handlungen. I. 241-7S; also, for the first three Christian cen- turies Probst, Kirchliche Disciplin in den Ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten (Tubingen, 1873); for medieval items, Thurs- ton, Lent and Holy Week (London, 1906), also R. T. Hampson, Medii Aei'i Kalendarium (London, 1841), I, 180; II, 214-15, 324, 326, 387.

J.J). O'Neill. Fast among' Mohammedans. See Ramadan. Fasti Siculi. See Chronicon Paschalb.

Fatalism is in general the view which holds that all events in the history of the world, and, in particular, the actions and incidents which make up the story of each individual life, are determined by fate. The theory takes many forms, or, rather, its essential feat- ure of an antecedent force rigidly predetermining all occurrences enters in one shape or another into many theories of the universe. Sometimes in the ancient world fate was conceived as an iron necessity in the nature of things, overruling and controlling the will and power of the gods themselves. Sometimes it was explained as the inexorable decree of the gods direct- ing the course of the universe; sometimes it was per- sonified as a particular divinity, the goddess or god- desses of destiny. Their function was to secure that each man's lot, " share ", or part should infallibly come to him.

Ancient Classical Fatalism. — The Greek tragedians frequently depict man as a helpless creature borne along by destiny. At times this destiny is a Nemesis which pursues him on account of some crime commit- ted by his ancestors or himself; at other times it is to compensate for his excessive good fortune in order to educate and humble him. With .-Eschylus it is of the nature of an unpitying destiny; with Sophocles, that of an overruling personal will. Still, the mo.st im- portant feature is that the future life of each individ- ual is so rigorously predetermined in all its details by an antecedent external agency that his own volitions or desires have no power to alter the course of events. The action of fate is blind, arbitrary, relentless. It moves inexorably onwards, effecting the most terrible