[terycarl]

I didn’t know that bit about “Christians cannot eat meat dedicated to a pagan god.” I went to Catholic school, but they never covered that. (Of course, first it was “You can’t eat meat on Fridays,” but that changed too, after Vatican II.)

I'd guess that you weren't a real good student in your religion class. Of course they covered that, if they covered the old testament at all (which they did). However, Pauls messages to us frees us from some of the old testament restrictions. The restriction on eating meat on Friday was a purely localized act of penance for, I believe, the conversion of Russia. The penalty for doing so was not based on the fact that meat eaten on Fridays was somehow more evil than meat eaten on any other day. The penalty was for denying that the church had the right to make such a rule. That rule could have been changed at any time (it was a rule) and I'm not certain that Vatican II had anything to do with it.

[worst-case scenario]

Excuse me? I got straight As. It wasn’t covered, period, in the Catholic grade school and high school I attended. I checked with my sibling who went to a Catholic girls’ hs, and it was never mentioned in *her* classes, either. Perhaps *you* attended a Catholic school where the laws of Leviticus were taught in detail. That may have been the choice of the school, the diocese, or the emphasis of the time. In the 1960s and early 70s, they were not, at least in my diocese.

I read the Old Testament extensively, and was aware of all the proscriptions in Leviticus. However, we were specifically taught that those laws didn’t apply to us, since Christ had liberated us to a new Law.

As far as Friday abstinence, Catholics were released from it by Paul VI in 1966, following the changes to the Church following Vatican II.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2649925/posts