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Thursday, 13 Mar 2025
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Catholics are supposed to give up eating meat on Fridays in lent. But fish is free game. In one region of the world a type of larg rodent, I believe its called a nutria was over populated and running rampant, so the local catholic population asked permission to eat them on fridays in lent. and the bishops were like “Ehhhh sure, well just say its a fish.”
And thus the nutria became a fish.
I just learned this now, but apparently in the 18th century, Spanish missionaries in Venezuela, Columbia and Brazil ate capybara. They wrote to the pope, describing an animal that lived mostly in the water, had hair and scales and asked if they could eat it for lent. The pope, not knowing what a capybara was, and only having the description to go off of decided that the capybara was a fish, so it was okay to eat.
[https://www.cogwriter.com/news/church-history/did-a-pope-conclude-that-a-rodent-was-actually-a-type-of-fish-for-lent/](https://www.cogwriter.com/news/church-history/did-a-pope-conclude-that-a-rodent-was-actually-a-type-of-fish-for-lent/)
Catholics who participate in Lent are permitted to eat fish, but also other semi-aquatic animals. Never heard of anyone eating capybaras, but that’s what it is referencing.
Peter’s dumb lazy nephew here with a dumb lazy explanation. Catholics can’t have meat during lent and the church had to categorize a bunch of new animals based on biblical definitions. Anything that swam in water was supposed to be a fish, but some things got loopholed cause I’m sure people were tired of eating actual fish all the time.
back in the day they called beavers fish so they could eat them during lent
“We thank the Pope for granting us this wish
When Friday comes, we’ll all call rats fish”
—Rasputina, “Rats”
Catholics won’t eat meat on Fridays or some altogether during lent. For some reason fish doesn’t count. I’m not sure what a capybara has to do with it… But my guess is that they’re just looking for anything to call a fish so they can eat it?
Yeah, is because the lent and all that. But in my country they do the same but with “chigüire” (capybara). Catholics can eat those during lent (Semana Santa). So this meme is correct at least in my country…
during lent, catholics don’t eat meat on fridays EXCEPT for fish. and then this happened. because catholics wanted it to.
Catholics are supposed to avoid “meat” on Fridays in lent. However, “meat” in this context specifically refers to the flesh of terrestrial tetrapods; fish, shellfish, and aquatic tetrapods (such as capybaras and geese) are not considered “meat” for the purposes of fasting.
Hey, if you can turn water into wine, and wafers and wine into Jesus, rodents into fish is hardly a stretch.
Lent is when you give up meat (typically excluding fish) for 40 days.This person is trying to bend the rules on what counts as fish.
I love this.
That’s a capybara. Capybara swim a lot. They want to use that as an excuse to eat it because it behaves like a fish.
Catholics aren’t supposed to eat meat on Fridays during lent, but can have fish. For various historical reasons the Catholic definition of fish has been altered over the past few centuries to include things like capybaras, ducks, muskrats, etc.
The Catholic definition of fish has been stretched so far at this point that I’m pretty sure you can eat Michael Phelps on a Friday without violating Vatican law.
Here in California, Honey Bees are legally classified as fish.
People in medieval era didn’t really believe that beavers are fish.
Lent as idea was based around ancient greek humoral theory, which believes that people health and behavior are caused, by humors: blood, bile, black bile, phlegm. If you were sick or feeling unwell mentally, then your humors was not in right proportions. For example if you had to much blood you could be quite angry or if you had to much phlegm -sad. Foods could influence this quntities of humors. It was belived that meat cause production of much more blood. To much blood could be a reason to be angry and anger was a sin. Why does people eated fish then? Because fish is wet and cold, which is in opossition to meat which is hot and dry. Wet and cold things produce phlegm, dry and hot produce blood. Fish lives in wet and cold water and that’s why they cause production of phlegm. Cows, Birds and so on lived on the dry land and that’s why they produced blood. So people in medival era were perfectly aware that beavers were mammals, but they thought that if something lives underwater than it cause production of phlegm.
Lent was invented to be like Christ on the desert. People wanted to control their urges and by that, get ready for all of the later celebrations. It was all about purity, control of your emotions and tendencies and diet was a way to do that. So actually most of this things were invented in ancient Greece and Rome.
Sorry for bad English.
I live in Louisiana and alligator officially “is considered in the fish family” during Lent, this meme is referencing how some Catholics stretch the definition to reduce their dietary restrictions
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The answer is “yes” because God himself said so despite everyone saying Catholics believe in Science and then take all the credit for it even existing.
I think beavers are the exception
Saw a meme recently about a way to get out of fasting during Ramadan. People called it culturally insensitive. Apparently mocking Catholics is fine though?
-Not a Catholic
It’s a rodent that lives in water
I saw one of those things get hit by a car in Brazil. Was definitely a wtf moment for me.
Phylogenetically…. Yes???
Ha, my dad said he and his friends used to “bless” stuff: “Now you are burger, now you are fish.”
You’re not suppose to eat meat during lent. However fish is allowed. I suppose this meme is insinuating that the church made an exception to categorize capibaras as fish so they can eat it.
In Michigan, muskrats are fair game.
It looks like a capybara.
It’s because Catholics have no concept of what meat is.
/r/catholicmemes is bleeding over
Ah just the ole diet trick where you say “just one slice of cake” won’t hurt even though you are actively breaking your own self imposed rules.
Beaver is classified as a fish by the catholic church also so it can be eaten on Fridays.
Alligators are also considered fish
They also seem to have a grey area with age of consent
Not nobody
I’m reminded of [this](https://youtu.be/3pwVEVj3Gzc?si=xSnCtVIBdqtW-Pvh)
For castle super beast fans
Also, fun fact.
When they were in Japan. They asked the locals in 長崎 to figure out a food they can eat.
[Tempura was created due to Catholics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempura)….. And now Japanese eats it
Half carp and half barracuda
Why tf bro got that “Saturn ring” ass haircut 😭
Capybara are classified as fish for some reason
Honestly giving up meat and eating fish/seafood is one of the dumbest thing Catholics follow. Like sure I’ll pass up burgers and pork chops, hot dog, and instead eat some sushi, shrimp, lobster?
Muskrat is eaten on Fridays during Lent in the Detroit area. Started in the 1700s.
OP is an idiot who knows nothing about anything
Not even 100% still on this one and it still has me fucking dying…
During the medieval times catholics made up a bunch of dumb shit to guilt and control people. Including lent! So one thing they were especially good at is lying about what animals had to give up for lent. Like capybaras always have to give up porn for the whole month so they can go to heaven
In South America, the indigenous people were “converted” to Catholicism and were not allowed to eat meat on Fridays. However, they were quite fond of capybara, the animal depicted in the meme, and they refused to give it up, sparking a crisis for the Church. The local Church authorities appealed to Rome and got a papal disposition declaring the capybara a species of fish. Crisis averted.