Friday penance and Mortal Sin!

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I usually abstain from meat or do some other form of penance on Friday. Lately I have been having a debate with some family members on whether or not one is required to preform an act of penance on each Friday. My family members think that it is recommended but not obligatory. It’s my understanding that we are obliged to preform some form of penance each Friday and that not doing so, fully knowing that it is an obligatory teaching with full consent, is a mortal sin.
 
The rules for Roman Catholics are prescribed in The Code of Canon Law (Canons 1250-1252):
Code: 
Can. 1250: The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.

Can. 1251: Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, **is to be observed on all Fridays**, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Can. 1252: The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.
The Rules for Roman Catholics in the United States:

In the United States, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has declared that “the age of fasting is from the completion of the eighteenth year to the beginning of the sixtieth.” The USCCB also allows the substitution of some other form of penance for abstinence on all of the Fridays of the year, except for those Fridays in Lent. Thus, the rules for fasting and abstinence in the United States are:
Code: 
Every person 14 years of age or older must abstain from meat (and items made with meat) on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all the Fridays of Lent.

Every person between the age of 18 and 59 (your 59th birthday begins your 60th year) must fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Every person 14 years of age or older must abstain from meat on all other Fridays of the year, unless he or she substitutes some other form of penance for abstinence.
If you are outside the United States, you should check with the bishops’ conference for your country.

As to whether breaking the abstention or substitution constitutes mortal sin or not, I don’t know. This is something you should discuss with your priest. If and when I eat meat on Friday and don’t perform some other act of penance I do confess it.
 
Here’s a good article by Jimmy Akin on the topic jimmyakin.org/2004/07/since_tomorrow_.html

In short, Fridays are still penitential days, but Catholics in the US are not legally bound under pain of sin to perform penance on those days. Other bishop conferences may have different disciplines, but that’s how it is in America.
 
Quoted from the USCCB Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence:
  1. Among the works of voluntary self-denial and personal penance which we especially commend to our people for the future observance of Friday, even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat.We do so in 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.
Hope this helps. This response is conditioned by being in the United States. It does not apply to, say England.
 
Pug said:
Quoted from the USCCB Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence:
  1. Among the works of voluntary self-denial and personal penance which we especially commend to our people for the future observance of Friday, even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat.We do so in 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.
Hope this helps. This response is conditioned by being in the United States. It does not apply to, say England.
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Interesting. So it is no longer considered sinful to not practice some form of penance on Friday year-round in the States?
 
YosefYosep said:
Interesting. So it is no longer considered sinful to not practice some form of penance on Friday year-round in the States?
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Apparently not, not unless it is Lent. However, if you read the document in question, they decidedly expect people to do penance on Fridays nonetheless, and they still recommend abstinence from meat for that purpose. So put remembering God on your to do list, but don’t worry about sin. But remember, we are all called to live a life oriented to God. I’ll confess (at confession) to not saying my morning offering (a type of prayer) if I have been skipping it a lot, not that I think it is mortal, but I am not striving as I ought for my Love, see? I know that prayer is a barometer for me.
 
Pug said:
Quoted from the USCCB Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence:
  1. Among the works of voluntary self-denial and personal penance which we especially commend to our people for the future observance of Friday, even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat.We do so in 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.
Hope this helps. This response is conditioned by being in the United States. It does not apply to, say England.
Click to expand...
This is not clear to me. The statement seems to be saying that abstinence binding under pain of sin as the sole means of penance is terminated. To me that can mean that not doing any penance is still binding under pain of sin whereas before it only applied to abstaining from meat. Personally I would read that as not doing a Friday penance is binding upon pain of sin.

Since writing the above I read the whole statement and it appears the obligation is no more but I have to admit it could have been put more clearly.
 
thistle said:
This is not clear to me. The statement seems to be saying that abstinence binding under pain of sin as the sole means of penance is terminated. To me that can mean that not doing any penance is still binding under pain of sin whereas before it only applied to abstaining from meat. Personally I would read that as not doing a Friday penance is binding upon pain of sin.

Since writing the above I read the whole statement and it appears the obligation is no more but I have to admit it could have been put more clearly.
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This is how I read it certainly. They are saying it is no longer mortal sin to eat meat on Fridays, provided some other penitential work is substituted in its place.
 
sw85 said:
In the UK, yes, since about 2011.
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But it is not a mortal sin to eat meat on a Friday in the UK, it was made clear at the time.
Rather, the Bishops would like us to resume the old practice and use it as our Friday penance, in place of other things we might do (or not), so as to emphasise our Catholic-ness, and also as a way of identifying with those who cannot afford meat.

However, to repeat, it was explained at the time that it was not a matter of mortal sin. (See Briefing Notes on the Catholic Bishops’ website).
 
After reading the USCCB pastoral statement on penance and abstinence, I feel like they were trying to say that one is not sinning if he does not fast from meat only if he replaces that fasting with some other for of penance.
 
thistle said:
This is not clear to me. The statement seems to be saying that abstinence binding under pain of sin as the sole means of penance is terminated. To me that can mean that not doing any penance is still binding under pain of sin whereas before it only applied to abstaining from meat. Personally I would read that as not doing a Friday penance is binding upon pain of sin.

Since writing the above I read the whole statement and it appears the obligation is no more but I have to admit it could have been put more clearly.
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Yes, the document as a whole is not the language of obligation/binding (except Lent), but it lacks clarity on the topic. I wonder if it is a compromise document or something, to make two factions happy? I note that the section I quoted describes the penance as voluntary. I wonder if they hoped we’d all jump on the bandwagon of voluntary pursuit of penance and be holier than we were by just following orders. I agree with the bishops that it would be super if we all started “freely making of every Friday a day of self-denial and mortification in prayerful remembrance of the passion of Jesus Christ.”
 
ajecphotos said:
So, i am not sinning eating meat on a friday?
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You sin by not doing penance on a Friday, except if the Friday falls on a solemnity, such as Christmas.

You are given a little leeway if you don’t have to abstain from meat per bishop or per dispensation but Canon Law is strict about the penance.

During Lent, however, you must abstain from meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday.
 
Should i go to confession because i continue to eat meat on a friday?
 
ajecphotos said:
Should i go to confession because i continue to eat meat on a friday?
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I don’t know what the rules are for Catholics in the UK, but if the bishops there have said you should abstain from meat on Fridays, then yes.
 
Just checked and indeed meat is forbidden on a friday here in Wales! Confession here i come! Sorry Lord! 😊
 
But somebody has no idea at all that it was forbidden, would it really be a sin??
 
Kathrin said:
But somebody has no idea at all that it was forbidden, would it really be a sin??
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One would have to know that it was a serious act of disobedience and do it anyway, in order for it to be sin.

And, when we learn that it is, we should rejoice in the discipline, and practice it for the love of the Lord.
 
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