Way back in 1966 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) terminated the traditional law of abstinence (abstaining from meat) binding under pain of sin for Fridays. However, if one chooses to eat meat on Friday, they should perform some other act of penance.
The USCCB published the Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence on November 18, 1966. The link to the document on the USCCB website can be found here.
The pertinent paragraphs are #18 thru #28. Sadly, this gets lost in today’s culture and I don’t think I have ever heard it mentioned at mass or any other formation event. I just happened to stumble upon it while perusing the internet. Rather than try to come up with another penitential practice for Friday, my wife and I decided to abstain from meat, since the bishops gave abstinence from meat the highest place.
You may be just as surprised as I was, or you may have known this all along. In any event, it’s a practice that should be revived.