Is eating meat on Lenten Fridays a Mortal Sin

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It depends which country you are in. It is not a mortal sin in the UK, for instance. The mortal sin involved is the disobedience to the bishops of your own country. In other words, if your bishops have decreed that meat is not to be eaten in your country on Lenten Fridays but you go ahead with it quite happily, you have committed the sin of disobedience to lawful authority, which is a mortal sin. But if your bishops haven’t decreed that, then there is no sin.

It’s not the meat-eating in itself, it’s the disobedience or not.
 
chrisetree said:
or is it venial?
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it depends on what your bishops have said
if you do it deliberately with intent to flout church teaching and blatantly refuse to do this or any penance for sin, it could become mortal. forgetting is never a sin in any case
 
paperwight66 said:
It depends which country you are in. It is not a mortal sin in the UK, for instance. The mortal sin involved is the disobedience to the bishops of your own country. In other words, if your bishops have decreed that meat is not to be eaten in your country on Lenten Fridays but you go ahead with it quite happily, you have committed the sin of disobedience to lawful authority, which is a mortal sin. But if your bishops haven’t decreed that, then there is no sin.

It’s not the meat-eating in itself, it’s the disobedience or not.
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Can you provide a reference for the legislation in the UK? 🙂 I’m currently trying to determine exactly what the requirements in the UK are. I have a couple of references that indicate that in the UK, abstinence from meat is only obligatory on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, on all other Fridays (including Lent) A.N.Other penance can be substituted. But my confessor has expressed the belief that I’m obliged to abstain from meat on the Fridays of Lent. I’d appreciate some clarification, if somebody from the UK knows the answer!
 
Yes, go to www.catholic-ew.org.uk and click on ‘Lent and Easter’. It will tell you that we are encouraged to some kind of penance on Fridays, but only specifies Ash Wed and Good Friday as fast and abstinence.
You have to read quite a bit down to find it.
It’s the website for the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, hence the ‘ew’ in the address. If it doesn’t work, just google Catholic bishops England and Wales.
 
So, the whole “no meat on Fridays during Lent” thing is at the whim of each Bishop? Ugh. I never knew it was that arbitrary.
 
Sometimes it pays to be a vegetarian. I am so this whole thing is much ado about nothing. Is it a mortal sin to eat some meat though? That seems a stretch…
 
Well, the point is obedience, isn’t it. But I find it irrelevant, as in our house we eat fish almost exclusively. I always try to do some penance like not watching a favourite tv programme, but it seems petty, the whole thing, really.
 
I have been told it is both. No bother, I will follow my conscience
 
HolyCow21 said:
So, the whole “no meat on Fridays during Lent” thing is at the whim of each Bishop? Ugh. I never knew it was that arbitrary.
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it is not a whim, it is the considered judgement of the bishops conference of each country based on what they think is best for their people. To suggest that the bishops together or as individual govern on whim is a very callous POV.
 
Regarding the penitential days in the Church: Their substantial observance binds gravely. See Pope Paul VI’s document.
 
Here in Scotland, I believed that abstaining from meat on Friday’s during Lent was a personal devotion that may be undertaken, but I still am unsure whether it is obligatory. It can be quite infuriating that these things are not communicated to us. Last year, we were counseled to change our light bulbs…nothing more than that.
 
Bookcat said:
Regarding the penitential days in the Church: Their substantial observance binds gravely. See Pope Paul VI’s document.
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Here is an interesting discussion on that from Jimmy Akin.

jimmyakin.org/2010/02/substantial-observance.html
I haven’t tried to determine the answer in detail, but I have noted that the inclusion of the word “substantial” is meant to have a softening effect, in keeping with Paul VI’s overall relaxation of penitential discipline.
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and from Father Bertram
We think that the word “substantial” was chosen designedly, especially in order the better to show the personal responsibility of each one before God, so that every one may practice penance in spirit and in truth, without insisting too much on the traditional distinctions of casuistry between grave and light matter in the violation of the law. Consequently, a single violation could not be considered a grave sin, but the repeated and habitual violation would certainly be grave.
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I would be uncomfortable with trying to find a way to sin a little, but this might provide some leniency in judging our neighbor on such matters, as if we should be doing that anyway.
 
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