Is it a mortal sin to eat meat on Friday during lent?

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emergency0126

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I heard you had to abstain meat on Friday during Lent (from the age of 14). But it is hard to because I forget or my parents just cook meat for dinner. Is it a mortal sin if I eat in those 2 cases?
 
Well, try to remember Fridays. We are obligated to some sort of penance on Fridays, though if you’re an American it doesn’t have to be abstaining from meat except on Fridays during lent.
Do your parents know you are Catholic and would like to not eat meat during Fridays? If so, would they possibly respect your wishes so you will just eat sides or something like that (assuming they aren’t Catholic).
If they don’t know, is there any particular reason?

(we are also obligated to fast Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, with a reccomended but not obligated fast from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. By fasting we mean one meal with up to 2 small snacks that, when put together, are less than the one meal).

To be mortal sin, it must consist of:
  1. grave matter
  2. deliberately willed intent
  3. knowledge of it being wrong
    Otherwise a sin can still be venial.
 
Kei said:
know you are Catholic and would like to not eat meat during Fridays? If so, would they possibly respect your wishes so you will just eat sides or something like that (assuming they aren’t Catholic).
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They are catholic, but they don’t seem to mind that much about this. But thanks for the advice!
 
emergency0126 said:
I heard you had to abstain meat on Friday during Lent (from the age of 14).
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The Church asks us to abstain from meat on Fridays of Lent in the US.

The Church no longer obligated under “pain of mortal sin” as it was formulated in days gone by. There is no particular penalty associated with not abstaining.
emergency0126 said:
But it is hard to because I forget
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Forgetting is not a sin. Certainly we can try harder to remember, but a lapse such as this is not a sin as it is not done on purpose.
emergency0126 said:
or my parents just cook meat for dinner.
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We do not have an obligation to abstain from meat when meat is served to us by others, such as your parents, or any time there is a moral or physical impossibility of maintaining the obligation. So for example, if your school serves you lunch with meat in it, or your parents serve you dinner with meat in it, you may eat it.
emergency0126 said:
Is it a mortal sin if I eat in those 2 cases?
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No.

You should talk with your pastor about this if you are concerned.
 
Kei said:
we are also obligated to fast Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
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The OP does not sound like he/she is 18 or over. Fasting applies to those 18 through 59.

And there are exceptions of course.
 
Well I’m in Canada, under the rule of Archidiocese of Vancouver. But it is a Korean community Church with priests from the Wonju diocese, korea so I guess I’m fine. Thank you
 
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Perhaps try to get your parents to try to do the abstinence with you. They may oblige. There are lots of good seafood dishes around, too.
 
I’ll try to ask. I don’t know if they’ll put that in to action but, if not I don’t think it’ll be that bad.
 
Oh ok. I didn’t think about searching the website. Thanks for looking it up.
 
Maybe this sentence will help “Mom, could we eat the delicious X fish you cook with Y sauce on Friday?” 😃
 
I think it might be hard to use that trick every friday for 3 meals, but I’ll try. Thank you.
 
Ask your parents to make fish or a cheese pizza. There are so many meatless alternatives.


Meat in the school lunch? Just leave it on the tray and eat the foods that aren’t meat. If you choose your own items, just don’t put meat on the tray.

If you have your own cell phone, put a weekly reminder in your calendar app that it’s a Friday in Lent. So no meat on that day.
 
Objectively speaking, it is a mortal sin to eat meat on Fridays in Lent. However, if one of the three conditions for mortal sin be lacking (grave matter, deliberate consent of the will, full knowledge of the gravity of the sin), then the sin is venial. Accidentally eating meat on a day of abstinence when you were intending to observe it, then it would not be mortal sin.
 
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ioannes_pius said:
Objectively speaking, it is a mortal sin to eat meat on Fridays in Lent.
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The Church does not bind the obligation under “pain of sin” under the current canons. It is not “objectively speaking a mortal sin”.
 
emergency0126 said:
Well I’m in Canada, under the rule of Archidiocese of Vancouver. But it is a Korean community Church with priests from the Wonju diocese, korea so I guess I’m fine. Thank you
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Unlike the US, Canada has no country-wide requirement that we asbstain from meat on Lenten Fridays, other than Good Friday, of course. I’m aware that, starting a few years ago, Archbishop Prendergast of Ottawa has mandated that his flock abstain from meat on Lenten Fridays but I have not heard of another.
 
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I try my best, and ask, but sometimes my parents make meat anyways.
 
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