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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025

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Modern American commentators(like most of this forum) tend to forget how heavily Catholic American religiosity would have been in the 50’s

Yup. It definitely tripped me out when, several years ago, my Dad told me about Fulton Sheen's radio show and how you could find a national broadcast of the rosary at least once a week.

I have also heard anecdotes that some of the midwest catholic strongholds (Cincinnati in particular) had things like fish in public schools on Fridays in Lent. Imagine the blowup that would have today.

In the UK, fish in school (including explicitly C of E schools) and workplace canteens on Friday had been the default since well before I was born, and I am reasonably sure that it became the default back when anti-Catholicism was still part of the national identity. I grew up associating it with Christianity generally, not Catholicism.

Of course, the traditional English fish and chips is not exactly an abstemious meal - and indeed the English Catholic hierarchy has warned the faithful that eating a huge plateful of fish and chips defeats the purpose of the Friday fast. I remember playing bridge on Friday evening against a man who was some kind of Catholic lay minister, and as we stuffed ourselves with fish he explained that his parish was pushing the idea of "eat what you want on Friday, but only 2/3 as much as you normally would".

Mayor Adams brought meatless Fridays to NYC schools, and the public response was making fun of his veganism.

It's actually interesting to note- most people think of 'Cafeteria Catholic' as a term originating as a metaphor for 'you say yes to this, I'll pass on that, like at a cafeteria serving line'. But that's a backronism(it is too a word, I just invented it); the original meaning was someone who would pick fish on Fridays at the cafeteria but not follow Catholic moral laws he found inconvenient.