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Well djs,

If Catholic leaders can not present the historic Fast to their faithful without doing so in a legastic manner, then perhaps you are right and they are better off without fasting at all.

Yet rather than abandoning the Great Fast, they could always try just taking some advice from their Orthodox friends.

Here is a copy of the letter included in the church bulletins from the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh Chancery Office.

REGULATIONS FOR THE SACRED SEASON OF THE HOLY GREAT FAST

The penitential practices for the Great Fast are to be kept in accordance with the prescriptions that are mandated by the Holy See of Rome and have been promulgated for the Byzantine-Ruthenian Metropolia in the United States.

ABSTINENCE
The law of simple abstinence forbids the use of meat and meat products. All the faithful of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh who receive Holy Communion are bound to abstain. Abstinence is obligatory on all Wednesdays and Fridays during the sacred season of the Great Fast.

STRICT FAST AND ABSTINENCE
The law of strict fast and abstinence forbids the use of meat, eggs, and dairy products. Facsimiles, substitutes, and synthetic derivatives violate the intention and spirit of the law of strict fast and abstinence and therefore are to be avoided. All of the faithful of the Pittsburgh Archeparchy who receive Holy Communion are bound to keep the strict fast and abstinence which is to be observed on the first day of the Holy Great Fast, Pure Monday, February 7, 2005, and during Passion Week on Great Friday, March 25, 2005, which coincides this year with the great feast of the Holy Annunciation of the Most Holy Godbearer.

DISPENSATIONS
Priests and parents are to see to it that minors are educated in the authentic observance of the traditional penitential practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (generosity) according to the Byzantine Catholic tradition. All pastors, because of a just cause and taking into account acceptable reasons due to personal circumstances, may grant to the individual faithful as well as to individual families, dispensations, transferals, or commutations of abstinence and strict fast into other pious practices. The faithful must ask and receive this permission from the pastor in each instance.

LITURGICAL SERVICES
The preeminent eucharistic service used during the greatfast season is the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Throughout this penitential period of the Great Forty-Days Fast, the Presanctified Divine Liturgy of Saint Gregory Dialogos is the only eucharistic service that is to be celebrated on Wednesday and Friday evenings. In order to participate seriously in the Great Fast and fulfill the requirements for public prayer, the faithful are exhorted strongly to attend at least one Presanctified Divine Liturgy each week.

I'm learning(and I will always be learning...) to fast at a Ukrainian parish here in northern California. Our practice is to expect children over 14 years old to observe the fast the way their family does(strict, simple, relaxed etc).
Anyway, I was wondering about something that was mentioned about breaking the Great Fast and having to confess it. Our priest has said before on a few occasions that it is not a sin to break the fast, but that it is our job to strive to imitate Christ and the saints in order to put down the temptations of the flesh. That it is in no way a sin but if we are struggling with keeping it at all that we should come to him for encouragment and advice. Just thought I'd ask...

In the Latin Rite, if you break any regulation, you die, go to hell, demons rip the limbs from your quivering body, and Our Lady has the angels throw boulders at you from heaven. In the East, we try to learn from our failures to become better Christians. Leave the legalism to the West, we are better off without it.