text: In making her argument, Zagano castigates a former priest quoted in the New York Times, who wanted chicken as his last meal, a meal he enjoyed on Friday nights as a priest.
  
  Zagano says, "Really? He was a priest from 1965 to 1969, before the fasting laws changed."
  
  No, Ms. Zagano.  Pope Paul VI removed the mortal obligation of meatless Fridays in 1966; USA bishops promulgated the change on November 18, 1966... right before Thanksgiving.  (And the practice of meatless Fridays is called "abstinence", not "fasting".)  
  
  Source:
  http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/lent/us-bishops-pastoral-statement-on-penance-and-abstinence.cfm
  (Statement of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, November 18, 1966).
  
  An argument that denigrates a struggling, suffering person thereby weakens the argument.