Paenitemini

Paenitemini is a 1966 apostolic constitution by Pope Paul VI. In Paenitemini Paul changed the strictly regulated Catholic fasting requirements. He recommended that fasting be appropriate to the local economic situation, and that all Catholics voluntarily fast and abstain. He further recommended that fasting and abstinence be replaced with prayer and works of charity "in countries where the standard of living is lower".

Content

Pope Paul noted the Church's mission of showing man the right way to use earthly goods and to collaborate in the "consecration of the world." While he emphasized the great importance of penance as "a religious, personal act which has as its aim love and surrender to God", he observed that the Church, attentive to the signs of the times is prompted to seek, beyond fast and abstinence, new expressions more suitable for the realization of the precise goal of penitence.

He stated that while preserving the custom (observed for many centuries with canonical norms) of practicing penitence also through abstinence from meat and fasting, the Church intends to ratify other forms of penitence as well, and left it to the episcopal conferences to replace the observance of fast and abstinence with exercises of prayer and works of charity where appropriate.