Is it a sin, Mortal Sin to eat meat on Fridays during Lent?

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I believed that it was a mortal sin to knowingly eat meat (flesh) on Friday during Lent, except Fish. Does this apply to minors?

I know if you are under 18 you do no have to fast, but I feel that if you can you should. Are you obligated to abstain? My Catholic friend who is 16 (I am 17) ate meat last Friday and I was not sure if it was a (mortal?) sin or not so I did not bring it up.
 
I don’t know, but just this past friday I forgot about it and had lunch at KFC, and didn’t remember it was lent until it was too late…
 
Here is the law.

If you ate meat on Friday and you knew you were not to do it and you did it of your own free will, take it to Confession.

Canon 1252 All persons who have completed their fourteenth year are bound by the law of abstinence; all adults are bound by the law of fast up to the beginning of their sixtieth year. Nevertheless, pastors and parents are to see to it that minors who are not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are educated in an authentic sense of penance.
 
This would be a venial sin if one knew it was Friday (no meat)?
 
First, I note you are in RCIA. If you are not Catholic, you are not yet bound to obey the fast and abstinence. In other words, it would not be a sin at all for you to have eaten the meat, unless perhaps you were knowingly leading someone who is Catholic into sin.

But, given your age, often people in RCIA of that age are really there because the parish put them there to complete their confirmation, but they are already practicing Catholics. If that is the case for you, you are bound by the rules of abstinence from meat during the Fridays of Lent. You may not take meat during Friday.

If your Catholic friend forgot it was Friday in Lent, then it was not a mortal sin. Do not worry for them. 🙂 But I suggest you remind them about the rule.

If your Catholic friend knew it was Friday, remembered it was Lent, had be taught about the seriousness of the Catholic rules on fast and abstinence, and deliberately spurned the rules in an act of defiance of them, and had sufficient reflection and consent, then it is possible that the conditions were met for a mortal sin. Eating meat on a Friday in Lent can be a mortal sin. Usually, though, someone just forgot, or else they didn’t know it could be serious.

And yes, you are both old enough so that the rules about meat apply to you.
 
A substantial breaking of the Church’s discipline of fast …abstinence …is grave matter for a mortal sin…but one needs full knowledge and deliberate consent.

Of course one should observe the whole discipline…

And yes forgetting …honest forgetting …can be no sin at all.
 
I think y’all ought to go back to completely meatless Lent. This “Fridays only” stuff is kinda wussy. 😉
 
Palaeologos said:
I think y’all ought to go back to completely meatless Lent. This “Fridays only” stuff is kinda wussy. 😉
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Actually, we can choose another penance on outside-of-Lent Fridays. If we do not, it is still meatless 👍
 
kage_ar said:
Actually, we can choose another penance on outside-of-Lent Fridays. If we do not, it is still meatless 👍
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though there seems there is no obligation outside of Lent per se in the USA (Roman rite…do not know the Eastern Churches) (of course they are still penitential days and one still needs penance in ones life)
 
Palaeologos said:
I think y’all ought to go back to completely meatless Lent. This “Fridays only” stuff is kinda wussy. 😉
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But even in the “old days,” (within living memory) it wasn’t all of Lent that was meatless - it was ALL Fridays, Lent or not, that were meatless.
 
Lead_Me_Home said:
I believed that it was a mortal sin to knowingly eat meat (flesh) on Friday during Lent, except Fish. Does this apply to minors?

I know if you are under 18 you do no have to fast, but I feel that if you can you should. Are you obligated to abstain? My Catholic friend who is 16 (I am 17) ate meat last Friday and I was not sure if it was a (mortal?) sin or not so I did not bring it up.
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abstinence from the flesh of warm blooded animals is binding on Catholics over 14.

it is not a mortal sin to eat meat on days of abstinence unless it is done with full knowledge with intent to commit mortal sin. in any case, we generally don’t need to bring these things up with other people unless they ask us, unless we are someone responsible for care of their soul such as a parent, catechist or pastor
 
fone bone 2001 said:
that’s what bookcat was saying, kage. In the first link you provided, akin argues for precisely what bookcat said: “there is no obligation outside of lent per se in the usa.”
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as long as one has another form of penance on friday (outside of lent) - are we so minimal that we would not follow the urging of our Bishops?

As a result, there appears to be no legal obligation in the United States to practice penance on Friday, but Friday remains a day on which the bishops have urged all to do penance and, in particular, recommended the continued practice of abstinence.
 
kage_ar said:
as long as one has another form of penance on friday (outside of lent) - are we so minimal that we would not follow the urging of our Bishops?

As a result, there appears to be no legal obligation in the United States to practice penance on Friday, but Friday remains a day on which the bishops have urged all to do penance and, in particular, recommended the continued practice of abstinence.
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Oh, I don’t disagree with you here, kage - my only point before was that what Bookcat and I said doesn’t contradict what you said. He was addressing the question of obligation specifically.
 
Bookcat said:
A substantial breaking of the Church’s discipline of fast …abstinence …is grave matter for a mortal sin…but one needs full knowledge and deliberate consent.

Of course one should observe the whole discipline…

And yes forgetting …honest forgetting …can be no sin at all.
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Wait…eating meat on a Friday in Lent could actually be a MORTAL sin? Seriously?
 
baylee said:
Wait…eating meat on a Friday in Lent could actually be a MORTAL sin? Seriously?
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Well, to be precise, it is the disobedience that could be a mortal sin. It is not the eating of meat itself, as proved by the fact some other countries do not have this ‘no meat on Lenten Fridays’ rule, the U.K. for one. Not eating meat is just one of the penances possible here.

If it were the actual eating of meat that were the sin, then that would apply worldwide, wouldn’t it.
 
paperwight said:
Well, to be precise, it is the disobedience that could be a mortal sin. It is not the eating of meat itself, as proved by the fact some other countries do not have this ‘no meat on Lenten Fridays’ rule, the U.K. for one. Not eating meat is just one of the penances possible here.

If it were the actual eating of meat that were the sin, then that would apply worldwide, wouldn’t it.
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Someone needs to post the teaching that states eating meat willfully (ie. being disobedient to the discipline) on Fridays of Lent could constitute a mortal sin.
 
baylee said:
Someone needs to post the teaching that states eating meat willfully (ie. being disobedient to the discipline) on Fridays of Lent could constitute a mortal sin.
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The Church teaches that penance is a divine obligation, and that she can specify how we will do penance together.
I. 1. By divine law all the faithful are required to do penance.
2. The prescriptions of ecclesiastical law regarding penitence are totally reorganized according to the following norms:
II. 1. The time of Lent preserves its penitential character. The days of penitence to be observed under obligation throughout the Church are all Fridays and Ash Wednesday, that is to say the first days of “Grande Quaresima” (Great Lent), according to the diversity of the rites. Their substantial observance binds gravely.
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Excerpted from Paenitemini, by Pope Paul 6th. Red color is added by me.

For Lent, this obligation would be about meatless Fridays and Ash Wed. Also for fasting on Ash Wed and Good Fri. In the USA, we are not required to have meatless Fridays outside of Lent. What constitutes the observance of these things varies by rite or country.

Note that substantial observance binds gravely. This means someone could somehow turn a refusal here into a mortal sin. I suspect usually that is not the case, though.
 
Pug said:
The Church teaches that penance is a divine obligation, and that she can specify how we will do penance together.
Excerpted from Paenitemini, by Pope Paul 6th. Red color is added by me.

For Lent, this obligation would be about meatless Fridays and Ash Wed. Also for fasting on Ash Wed and Good Fri. In the USA, we are not required to have meatless Fridays outside of Lent. What constitutes the observance of these things varies by rite or country.

Note that substantial observance binds gravely. This means someone could somehow turn a refusal here into a mortal sin. I suspect usually that is not the case, though.
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First of all, isn’t this a discipline…not a doctrine? If so, I’m still not seeing how failing to comply with a discipline results in a mortal sin.

And if it does, I"m once again confused …how does purposely not eating meat on a Friday in Lent equate with something like having an abortion? Lately, I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the various things that constitute grave matter.
 
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