Accidentally ate meat today

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No, because a mortal sin can’t be committed without knowledge, grave matter, etc. It will make you feel better to go to confession, though, at the earliest opportunity. However, this (because it was accidental) is only a venial sin.
 
Ok. I wasn’t consciously acknowledging I was eating meat. My wife asked if I wanted bacon in a salad and I said sure, momentarily forgetting what today was. Oddly when I was eating the salad I was thinking how well I did not eating meat and then it hit me. Lol. I’m coming into the Catholic church tomorrow so my nerves are shot.
 
codefro said:
Ok. I wasn’t consciously acknowledging I was eating meat. My wife asked if I wanted bacon in a salad and I said sure, momentarily forgetting what today was. Oddly when I was eating the salad I was thinking how well I did not eating meat and then it hit me. Lol. I’m coming into the Catholic church tomorrow so my nerves are shot.
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Oh! Welcome home!!! I’m not sure if Good Friday fasting applies to cathecumens. Maybe someone with more knowledge will provide enlightenment. Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful experience!🙂
 
grasscutter said:
Oh! Welcome home!!! I’m not sure if Good Friday fasting applies to cathecumens. Maybe someone with more knowledge will provide enlightenment. Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful experience!🙂
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I am a candidate. I was wondering if it does myself, so of someone knows that should be helpful.
 
An act cannot be considered sinful unless it is done intentionally. Therefore, there is no sin in your case as it was an accident. Do not allow this accident to disturb the peace you should have on this day.

Hope that helps.
 
May I also ask what the fasting guidelines are for days of fasting?
 
Two weeks ago I almost did this… I think we all forget what day it is sometimes.

My husband reheated some leftover pizza for me (bbq chicken and bacon), brought it to me, and I let it sit for a moment as it seemed rather hot… but I was thinking ‘man does that look good!’…

I picked it up, then it hit me… LOL
 
Here are the rules
Accidents are never mortal sins.🙂
I’ll pray for you as you enter the Church!
😃
We vegetarians have it easy:D
Although I gave up all sweets and can’t wait till Easter!
 
Ipecac will absolve the “sin” of accidental meat ingestion. Just kidding. Don’t worry about it.
 
manny85 said:
not to sidetrack but Br. JR this is the shortest answer I have ever seen you post lol.

God bless all those coming home 🙂
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:rotfl:

I’m sorry; but it took 45 minutes for a professor of moral theology and a canon lawyer to answer a similar question in graduate school. I couldn’t fit the entire explanation into 5000 characters or however many CAF gives us. 🤷

In those days, we were still under the code of 1917, which said it was a mortal sin. The code of 1983 took out the mortal sin part. I would have to explain why they did that too.

We don’t want to open that can of worms. :nope:

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
JReducation said:
:rotfl:

I’m sorry; but it took 45 minutes for a professor of moral theology and a canon lawyer to answer a similar question in graduate school. I couldn’t fit the entire explanation into 5000 characters or however many CAF gives us. 🤷

In those days, we were still under the code of 1917, which said it was a mortal sin. The code of 1983 took out the mortal sin part. I would have to explain why they did that too.

We don’t want to open that can of worms. :nope:

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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But moral theology has not changed … I’m certain that even before 1983 eating meat accidentally on a day of abstinence would not be a mortal sin since theologically, sin is an act or omission of the will. If it was truly by accident, it couldn’t even be a venial sin.

But you are probably referring to the fact that if done intentionally, it was labelled a mortal sin in the old code?
 
newyorkcatholic said:
But moral theology has not changed … I’m certain that even before 1983 eating meat accidentally on a day of abstinence would not be a mortal sin since theologically, sin is an act or omission of the will. If it was truly by accident, it couldn’t even be a venial sin.

But you are probably referring to the fact that if done intentionally, it was labelled a mortal sin in the old code?
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Morals theology does not change. In fact, moral theology does not say this or that is a sin. Moral theology is a series of principles by which we evaluate actions to determine if they are a sin.

Sin itself comes from one of three sources: natural law, Divine Revelation and ecclesial law.

Moral theology makes a distinction between the latter and the former. The Church can impose a penalty of mortal sin on some acts and can lift that penalty as well, as is the case between the 1917 and the 1983 codes. There is a philosophical reason for that being possible that is explained by Canon Law, not moral theology.

To answer the question, it takes both a moral theologian and a canon lawyer to give us the background and the differences between the different acts that are sinful and to explain why even though something like eating meat is prohibited by the Church, it can be a sin if the Church attaches such a penalty to it or it can be a deviation from the law, without being objectively sinful. That takes you into a whole other areas of moral theology. When is deviation from the law sinful and to what degree?

An accident is never sinful But there are reasons why it’s not sinful and secondly, there are laws that do not carry the penalty of sin, whether they are violated accidently or intentionally. However,they do carry a penalty of sin in the area of compliance to lawful authority. The sin would not be eating the meat, but failure to comply with authority.

Trust me, you don’t want to go there. It’s a very long explanation that takes two sciences in dialogue with each other.

Most of us who do pastoral care and care of souls keep it simple. “This is a sin and that’s not a sin. Just trust me.” I often feel like a heart surgeon when I’m doing spiritual direction. “Yes you have heart disease and we need to operate. Please don’t ask me to explain the roots of the decease starting from the cellular structure of the heart. Just look at the MRI and take my word for it. That’s not the way that you’re heart should look.”

Try to get into all of these minute explanations on sins that are of Divine Revelation, natural law or disciplines. :eek:

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
No worries, Br JR, I won’t try to get into the whole thing.

I just thought you were saying that the answer to the original question, before 1983, would have been “yes, you sinned” but clearly you didn’t mean that, you were just alluding to the complexity of the question of if it would be a sin even if done on purpose depending upon what the ecclesiastical law sin.

Since eating meat on any particular day wouldn’t be against Divine Law or natural law … but I said I won’t get into all that :-).
 
newyorkcatholic said:
No worries, Br JR, I won’t try to get into the whole thing.

I just thought you were saying that the answer to the original question, before 1983, would have been “yes, you sinned” but clearly you didn’t mean that, you were just alluding to the complexity of the question of if it would be a sin even if done on purpose depending upon what the ecclesiastical law sin.

Since eating meat on any particular day wouldn’t be against Divine Law or natural law … but I said I won’t get into all that :-).
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Nahhh, let’s not do that. It’s TMI.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
grasscutter said:
Oh! Welcome home!!! I’m not sure if Good Friday fasting applies to cathecumens. Maybe someone with more knowledge will provide enlightenment. Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful experience!🙂
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I don’t know what there is by way of documentation on this, but I’ve heard several make the comparison of the catechumenate to that of “the engagement before the wedding”, meaning that while it might be admirable for catechumens to observe all Catholic precepts, law, teaching, etc., they are not bound by the rules until the ‘big day’.
 
Yeah, I lose track of days of the week like it’s going out of style. So yesterday I had meat with my breakfast and then ~3 hours later I remembered:
  1. I am not supposed to eat meat;
  2. I am supposed to fast
Thankfully I had only had the one meal at that point (and it was a small meal at that) so I could still observe the fast.

Usually I don’t remember until I happen to check Facebook and one of my Catholic friends posts a reminder to fast / abstain. So the takeaway is - do your best to remember, but we all forget periodically.
 
AthenaC said:
Yeah, I lose track of days of the week like it’s going out of style. So yesterday I had meat with my breakfast and then ~3 hours later I remembered:
  1. I am not supposed to eat meat;
  2. I am supposed to fast
Thankfully I had only had the one meal at that point (and it was a small meal at that) so I could still observe the fast.

Usually I don’t remember until I happen to check Facebook and one of my Catholic friends posts a reminder to fast / abstain. So the takeaway is - do your best to remember, but we all forget periodically.
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Don’t sweat it. If it will make you feel better, St. Francis, who has been called the Most Catholic Man,wrote into our rule

“The brothers shall eat what is placed before them, even on days of fasting and abstinence.”

There was fasting and abstinence and there was common sense that went along with it. Forgetting and forgiving oneself for forgetting is common sense.

Fraternally,

Br.JR, OSF 🙂
 
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