Fwd: Pope announces Beasts are Fish

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Thomas Lammers wrote:
>
> At 08:52 PM 4/2/03 -0800, Curtis Clark wrote:
> >I have been told by Venezuelans that capybaras are regarded as suitable
> >for Lent. I don't know whether they have a dispensation.
>
> I was told the same story in Brazil.  I got the impression we're talking
> several hundred years ago, and that maybe the pope wasn't given all the
> facts, in an effort to stack the deck in favor of a yes vote

> The similar story was also told in Europe that people were allowed to eat beaver on fridays. But this may just have been an excuse by individuals and not an official decreed. The official church here, nowadays at least, declare it an urban legend.

* someplace or other one reads this of just about every family of
aquatic Mammal (Otters & Seals, in my experience, for example). I'm
amazed that there's no a website dedicated to "Mammals classified as
fish by the Roman Catholic Church for purposes of Friday Fasting."

...now I've just wasted the whole morning failing to find such a site,
though I guess the TAXACOM archives are acheiving that status de facto.

fred.
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