May we eat juices and sauces from meat on Lenten Fridays?

[GandalfTheWhite]

Hello!

I have two questions. As far as I know we can’t eat meat on Fridays of lent (with the exception of feast days). Today I was invited to a dinner by a friend and she made a curry. It was basically a big pot containing big chunks of chicken, mushroom and small corns. Now, before I started eating I suddenly realized that it’s Friday and so I ate everything else but the chicken (it was very easy not to eat it because as I said, it came in big pieces). I want to make sure that I didn’t sin by eating cooked with meat and contained it’s juices etc. I made the decision to eat it because I thought it applies only to eating meat but still I didn’t feel completely sure so I’m not even sure to what extend I would be excused by simple ignorance in case I’m wrong.

My other question is also concerning eating (or rather not eating) meat during Lenten Fridays. Is this practice to be maintained by the whole Church - meaning in every country? I’m basically a foreign student studying in an English-speaking country and when I talked to my mom and told her that we shouldn’t eat meat on Fridays of lent she was very surprised and I don’t think she believed me. Well, she certainly didn’t because she still eats meat. In the perfect world she would go and ask her priest but currently she isn’t in her home country but with my dad abroad (and she doesn’t speak the local language).

Could you please help me answer these two question?

Thank you very much beforehand!

Gandalf

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Dear Gandalf,

The requirement to abstain from meat on the Fridays of Lent is for the whole Church. This means it applies to every country.

You did not sin by eating the gravy. The Church allows the eating of soups and sauces made with broth made from meat.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.