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AltarSoldier
Guest
Just a question since I never really thought about it unless it was lent. If so Ive been in venial sin for years not knowing this 
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Is it obligatory for Catholics to fast or abstain from certain food every Friday?
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I know I may come across as the kind of Catholic who never saw a problem at which he didn’t want to throw a restatement of magisterial teaching, but I would welcome a reiteration from Rome covering the following:
- what penance is, and why we do it
- what Our Lord expects of us
- what the Church expects of us
- why we abstain from meat on Fridays
- why, if the bishops of our country derogate from this outside of Lent, we must choose another penance
- some “ballpark ideas” of what these alternate penances might look like
- and whether the Church simply has an expectation of this
- or whether it constitutes sin, and if so, is the sin venial or mortal?
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Cor_ad_Cor
Guest
No. You cannot commit a sin unknowingly.
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PetraG
Guest
You aren’t culpable for having commited a sin unless you were aware of an obligation and failed to meet it.
The obligation depends on where you are, but in the United States you may substitute a different penance for abstinence from meat.
I’d suggest you read this, so you can have the answer to your question from the horse’s mouth, so to speak:
http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-wor...toral-statement-on-penance-and-abstinence.cfm
In summary, let it not be said that by this action, implementing the spirit of renewal coming out of the Council, we have abolished Friday, repudiated the holy traditions of our fathers, or diminished the insistence of the Church on the fact of sin and the need for penance. Rather, let it be proved by the spirit in which we enter upon prayer and penance, not excluding fast and abstinence freely chosen, that these present decisions and recommendations of this conference of bishops will herald a new birth of loving faith and more profound penitential conversion, by both of which we become one with Christ, mature sons of God, and servants of God’s people
The obligation depends on where you are, but in the United States you may substitute a different penance for abstinence from meat.
I’d suggest you read this, so you can have the answer to your question from the horse’s mouth, so to speak:
http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-wor...toral-statement-on-penance-and-abstinence.cfm
In summary, let it not be said that by this action, implementing the spirit of renewal coming out of the Council, we have abolished Friday, repudiated the holy traditions of our fathers, or diminished the insistence of the Church on the fact of sin and the need for penance. Rather, let it be proved by the spirit in which we enter upon prayer and penance, not excluding fast and abstinence freely chosen, that these present decisions and recommendations of this conference of bishops will herald a new birth of loving faith and more profound penitential conversion, by both of which we become one with Christ, mature sons of God, and servants of God’s people
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Cor_ad_Cor
Guest
Yes, those disciplinary obligations that the Holy See has delegated to local bishops’ conferences are location specific.
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JanR
Guest
The old prohibition against eating meat on Fridays has long since been dropped by the Church. I recall, as a kid, the staff in our public school cafeteria never offered any meat dishes on Fridays, and that kept things simple for all concerned, not just the Catholic kids. We could still eat fish, and that’s how we got our protein on Fridays.
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