A Catholic Biusiness Owner and the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish

"When Lou Groen opened a McDonald's franchise in Cincinnati in 1959, the entire menu consisted of: hamburgers, 15 cents; cheeseburgers, 19 cents; fries, coffee, soda or milk, 10 cents; and shakes, 20 cents. With 87% of the Cincinnati population being Catholic, Fridays averaged only $75 a day. As a Catholic, Groen did not even eat his own hamburgers on Fridays.

"'My grandfather was losing his shirt,' explained Groen's granddaughter, Erica (Groen) Shadoin, in an interview with the Register. 'The area is mostly Catholic. Everyone was going down the street on Fridays to Frisch's restaurant that sold a fish sandwich.'

"At the time, in observance of Friday as a day of fast and abstinence, it was a sin for Catholics to eat meat. In 1966, many national bishops' conferences - including that of the U.S. - allowed Catholics to replace 'no meat' with another form of penance. They issued a 'Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence' but expressed the hope that 'the Catholic community will ordinarily continue to abstain from meat by free choice as formerly we did in obedience to Church law.'"

A recent National Catholic Register article reported on how and why the McDonald's restaurant chain introduced its Filet-O-Fish sandwich.

To access the complete National Catholic Register report, please visit:

National Catholic Register; How a Catholic Businessman Put the Filet-O-Fish on the McDonald's Menu (7 MAR 19)