Mackerel Snapper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mackerel Snapper, or Mackeral Snapper, is a sectarian derogatory term for Roman Catholics, referring to the pre-Vatican II custom of Friday abstinence. The Friday abstinence from meat (red meat and poultry) distinguished Catholics from other Christians, especially in North America, where Protestant churches prevailed and Catholics tended to be poor immigrants from Italy and Ireland.
The Church still calls Catholics to a Friday abstinence, however individual Catholics are allowed to choose their own form of abstinence. Catholics are still called to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and every Friday of Lent.
Although some Catholics have started using this term as a form of self-deprecating humor to describe themselves[citation needed], most Catholics are offended by its use by non-Catholics. A derivative phrase, "Mackeral Snapping Anarchists," is often borne as a point of pride by people affiliated with the University of Notre Dame, after it was coined by a member of the Ku Klux Klan in an anonymous letter written to the President of the University in 1924, after approximately 1,000 Notre Dame students had succeeded in driving some 30,000 rallying Klansmen out of South Bend.[1]
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