Polish church eases 'Fish on Friday' rule for May Day holiday

WARSAW - Poland's influential Roman Catholic Church is easing its 'Fish on Friday' rule for May 1, which this year starts a long weekend of family celebrations.

Christians, particularly Catholics, have long followed a tradition of abstaining from eating animal meat on Fridays, partly because it was considered a luxury. But modern eating habits, particularly spring barbeques, have eaten into theological thinking.

And Warsaw's archbishop on Saturday became the latest in Poland to use Vatican powers to alleviate discipline rules for the "spiritual" good of the faithful.

This year's May Day "marks the start of the May weekend, the holidays meant for family reunions and those that allow us to fully experience the Easter holidays," said Archbishop Adrian Galbas, announcing his move.

The Warsaw archbishop said in a statement that for "pastoral reasons" he was using canon law to grant a "dispensation from abstinence from meat on Fridays to all persons residing within the limits of the Archdiocese of Warsaw".

Vatican law allows a bishop to "dispense the faithful from disciplinary laws ... imposed by the supreme authority of the Church" if he judges it "beneficial to their spiritual good".

Poland, the birthplace of Pope John-Paul II, remains a Catholic bastion. But while three quarters of the population say they are Catholics, only a third say they regularly attend mass, half the figure of the 1980s.