Why can't catholics eat meat on fridays during Lent?

Question

I cant remember why for the life of me. And do they really think they'll go to hell if they do eat meat??

Answer 1

The Catholic Church and many other Christians Churches follow the Biblical practice of Jesus Christ and the Jews in setting aside days where the entire Church fasts and prays as one in a attitude of constant renewal.

By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert and in spiritual preparation for the celebration of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

This season of penance is an intense moments of the Church's penitential practice and are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and charitable and missionary works.

Eating meat on Friday is not a mortal sin and will not send someone to hell.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

It is actually every friday, not just fridays during lent. during lent you are supposed to fast/not eat meat.
Not eating meat came from a time when meat was something special to eat. And I think it was on a friday because christ was supposed to be crucified on a friday. So call is fasting (or giving something valued up) out of sympathy on a friday.
As nowadays meat is not that special of a thing, and plenty of people prefer not to eat any meat at all, people substitute not eating sweets or something they really care about, which is much more in the spirit of the thing.
And I don't think you go to hell for eating meat on a friday,. You just will either get fat if you never fast, or never have the fun for appreciating something again after making to do without (that would apply for fasting during lent, I doubt doing without one thing for one day a week will be very noticable to most of us).

Answer 3

Actually, Catholics shouldn't eat meat on Friday - regardless of Lent. Vatican II never changed that.

But why. . . it is a tradition that is done in memory of Jesus' fasting and suffering. It started a long time ago when meat (and there is a difference between meat of a fish and that of any animal on dry land - meat is generally defined as being from a warm-blooded animal) was very expensive. Since only the wealthy could afford it, it forced them to see how the poor were living.

Answer 4

Technically speaking, we can't eat mean on Fridays in any respect. there is an theory going around that this ended with Vatican II. It did not. human beings prefer to conveniently forget approximately that each and each Friday is meant as a sacrifice of a few type. you're making an enormously valid ingredient. one that still got here up the day till now on the instant related to the Pharisees. Jesus condemned them as they have been strict observers of the letter of the regulation, yet oftentimes ignored the SPIRIT of the regulation. i'm a vegetarian. i don't eat meat in any respect. some might say it fairly is a perpetual sacrifice so i'm clean for Fridays. yet this purely isn't real. The spirit of the regulation is a sacrifice. we are to grant some thing up. Fr. Benedict Groeschel's e book on Lent spells it out. Lobster Thermador could be technically ok, or possibly a bountiful sushi meal, whether that is not watching the SPIRIT of the regulation. Going to purple Lobster and having a bountiful "all you could eat" sea nutrition meal isn't watching the spirit of the regulation. I supply up candies each Friday. for the duration of Lent I supply up my liked Seitan on Fridays. Yum Yum

Answer 5

Actually, they can. There's no rule against it. It is only a pre-Vatican II custom. There has been no prohibition on eating meat on Friday since Vatican Council II many years ago. Some Catholics continue to avoid eating meat on Friday out of their own personal choice. A burger on Friday won't condem a person to hell.

Answer 6

The justification by the catholic clergy is the 'sacrifice' story that all the other answers allude to. The sacrifice (of not having meat one day per week) is supposed to teach you what it is like to give something up, which is to force you to suffer, which is to show you what Christ was going through when he suffered before his crucifixion.

The real reason is that there was not enough meat to go around for all the people way back in the Middle Ages. The clergy instituted this rule (no meat on Fridays) and used a religious justification. When all the peasantry avoided meat on Friday, it left enough meat for everyone (especially for the clergy) on the other days of the week. It is a simple deceptive conservation.

Answer 7

Hence we abstain from the use of flesh meat on Friday--the day consecrated to our Savior's

sufferings--not because the eating of flesh meat is sinful in itself, but as an act of salutary

mortification. Loving children would be prompted by filial tenderness to commemorate the

anniversary of their father's death rather by prayer and fasting than be feasting. Even so we

abstain on Fridays from flesh meat that we may in a small measure testify our practical

sympathy for our dear Lord by the mortification of our body, endeavoring, like St. Paul, "to

bear about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made

manifest in our bodies." [II. Cor. iv. 10.]

Answer 8

You cannot eat meat during Lent or any Friday since they are days of penance. Carnival (Mardi Gras) is from the Latin "carne" (meat) "vale" (farewell).

Meat is defined as foul and mammals. Have you ever heard of sacrificing the fatted trout.

Answer 9

I'm a catholic and we don't eat meat cos Jesus gave up ages not eating food so we just do this cos its symbolic.
I don't think I'll go to hell if I eat meat on this particular day
Thats only really strict catholics
If god love us soooo much he wouldn't send us to hell for eating meat!!!!!!!

Answer 10

it is to symbolize their respect for Christ dying on the cross ..... so no meat, but fish is ok.

the going to hell part ..... well - - - perhaps for some real hard liners, but for most Catholics & christianity in general there are very few un-pardonable sins.... so at confession they are able to clear it all up and take communion and be good as new.