Please forgive me if there are caveats or circumstances to this idea that I am not aware of.

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    It's not so much "eating fish" as "not eating meat"; for historical reasons Catholics are allowed to eat fish without being considered in violation of the "no meat" rule. – Matt Gutting Jan 29 '15 at 19:21
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    As @MattGutting mentioned, it is not a matter of a good work but of abstinence. It intends to be a form of sacrifice to help the individual imitate the Passion, an event remembered every Friday. The origin actually lies in the Italian markets, however. The fish markets were not doing so well in pre-Enlightenment Italy, so the Pope, then also a temporal ruler, decided to sanction the practice for both piety and economy. Hope that answers your question as it is indeed the accurate answer. – Yochanan Michael Jan 30 '15 at 1:24
  • @YochananMichael "pre-Enlightenment" can cover a wide range of time; when are we talking about, and where are your sources? – Matt Gutting Jan 30 '15 at 2:31
  • @MattGutting, that's the issue with the answer. I learned it from one of the priests who taught me in theology school and worked in the Vatican for several years under Pope St. John Paul II. Said priest always had his info down, but I can't seem to find the reference in my hundreds of pages of notes... Probably one of his educational side remarks. – Yochanan Michael Jan 30 '15 at 2:37

The "good work" that one can do by eating fish on Fridays is penance. Perhaps it's hard to understand if you love fish and abhor meat, but that's not the case for most people. The following lines contain an excerpt of Keeping Friday, from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops:

Jesus invited to carry the Cross and do penance for the good of the Church and the world. He died on Good Friday and, from that moment on, we share in the Lord’s Cross each Friday, learning to obey with Him, joining in His death to sin and evil. Every Friday is a promise from God that we who are baptized will rise again with Christ. We suffer and carry our crosses now, but we will share in Jesus’ glory if we are faithful by his grace.

How can we do this penance on Fridays? We may do it through these actions:

  • Abstinence from meat or some other form of food, drink or entertainment [Note 1: this is where the "eating fish" custom comes from; you exchange one for the other].
  • Prayer: take part in a service of worship with others, or pray with our family, or spend some extra time in personal prayer.
  • Good works [Note 2: meaning concrete exercises of charity, because abstinence and prayer are also "good" works]: do good to others by visiting the sick or aged, helping those in any need, or by contributing time or money to a work of charity.
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From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:


The time during which Catholics are supposed to abstain from meat is on Fridays during Lent, we do this in memory of Christs death. The eating of fish stems from this, but the real point is that Catholics are supposed to abstain from meat. They don't have to eat fish but are supposed to fast on Fridays.

From the Code of Cannon Law:


Days of Penance







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