What happened to all those Catholics who ate meat on Friday and died in mortal sin BEFORE Vatican II?

Question

This was the question my dad asked, as a child, that started his long walk away from the marion cult.

Answer 1

Be careful, fun fundie. it's extremely easy to anger catholic members of Yahoo Answers.

Answer 2

Does that make you feel good; like a big man; tough guy, calling the Catholic Church a "marion cult" while you are hidden behind the anonymity of the Internet?

The Catholic Church is the True Church because it is the only one that bears the Four Marks of the True Church:

The Church Is One (Rom. 12:5, 1 Cor. 10:17, 12:13, CCC 813–822)
Jesus established only one Church, not a collection of differing churches (Lutheran, Baptist, Anglican, and so on). The Bible says the Church is the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:23–32). Jesus can have but one spouse, and his spouse is the Catholic Church.

His Church also teaches just one set of doctrines, which must be the same as those taught by the apostles (Jude 3). This is the unity of belief to which Scripture calls us (Phil. 1:27, 2:2).

Although some Catholics dissent from officially-taught doctrines, the Church’s official teachers—the pope and the bishops united with him—have never changed any doctrine. Over the centuries, as doctrines are examined more fully, the Church comes to understand them more deeply (John 16:12–13), but it never understands them to mean the opposite of what they once meant.

The Church Is Holy (Eph. 5:25–27, Rev. 19:7–8, CCC 823–829)
By his grace Jesus makes the Church holy, just as he is holy. This doesn’t mean that each member is always holy. Jesus said there would be both good and bad members in the Church (John 6:70), and not all the members would go to heaven (Matt. 7:21–23).

But the Church itself is holy because it is the source of holiness and is the guardian of the special means of grace Jesus established, the sacraments (cf. Eph. 5:26).

The Church Is Catholic (Matt. 28:19–20, Rev. 5:9–10, CCC 830–856)
Jesus’ Church is called catholic ("universal" in Greek) because it is his gift to all people. He told his apostles to go throughout the world and make disciples of "all nations" (Matt. 28:19–20).

For 2,000 years the Catholic Church has carried out this mission, preaching the good news that Christ died for all men and that he wants all of us to be members of his universal family (Gal. 3:28).

Nowadays the Catholic Church is found in every country of the world and is still sending out missionaries to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19).

The Church Jesus established was known by its most common title, "the Catholic Church," at least as early as the year 107, when Ignatius of Antioch used that title to describe the one Church Jesus founded. The title apparently was old in Ignatius’s time, which means it probably went all the way back to the time of the apostles.

The Church Is Apostolic (Eph. 2:19–20, CCC 857–865)
The Church Jesus founded is apostolic because he appointed the apostles to be the first leaders of the Church, and their successors were to be its future leaders. The apostles were the first bishops, and, since the first century, there has been an unbroken line of Catholic bishops faithfully handing on what the apostles taught the first Christians in Scripture and oral Tradition (2 Tim. 2:2).

These beliefs include the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the forgiveness of sins through a priest, baptismal regeneration, the existence of purgatory, Mary’s special role, and much more —even the doctrine of apostolic succession itself.

Early Christian writings prove the first Christians were thoroughly Catholic in belief and practice and looked to the successors of the apostles as their leaders. What these first Christians believed is still believed by the Catholic Church. No other Church can make that claim.


As you can see, Catholicism is not nearly the "marion cult" you were mislead to believe. So who's REALLY closer to the Truth here?

Answer 3

As eating meat on Friday was never been a mortal sin in the Catholic teachings (before or after Vatican II), the question is pointless.

Answer 4

Eating meat on Fridays was never considered a sin, The Church gave you an example of a simple sacrifice that you might do during lent, you can do other simple sacrifices now instead of meat (not that you couldn't before)

Jesus did a great sacrifice during that time (lent) he went a whole 40 days with out food or water. Going one Friday with out meat isn't asking much or 40 days with out something else like caffeine really shouldn't be a problem.

As for the People who ate meat, nothing bad would happen to them, the whole purpose of abstaining from meat was to show you can do a small sacrifice, it was never a sin if they did eat it, but if that's what they chose for their sacrifice they might feel a little guilty because they did it in stead of abstaining from it.

Answer 5

*is Catholic*

If you die in mortal sin, they you are damned. That is the same for before and after Vatican II.

FYI you are still supposed to not eat meat on Fridays. However the USCCB received permission from the Vatican to allow for US Catholics to substitute an EQUIVALENT penance.

It should be noted that eating meat or not doing you penance is not necessarily a mortal sin.

But you question specifically stated that the individual was in mortal sin, so yes to hell with the individual.

Answer 6

Let's see... Jesus said that when the Bridegroom (Jesus himself) is taken away that his disciples will fast on that day (Mk 2:20). Jesus was taken on a Friday, suffering and dying for us, so it was considered fitting to make a sacrifice on that day, specifically to fast from flesh in remembrance of the crucifixion of Jesus the true Lamb of God. The Church's leaders have the power to bind and loose (see Mt 16:19), and the Church bound her members to remember the Lord's passion by abstaining/ fasting from meat on Fridays. It would not be the eating of meat, whether accidental or on purpose, that would have been sinful per se, but sin would rest in the defiance of the authority of God which He shares with the Church (Lk 10:16 - "Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me..."). If the Church changes a discipline to which Catholics are bound, that would not erase someone's past defiance (Catholics BTW are still supposed to make a sacrifice of some sort of Fridays even if it's not avoiding meat). So what "happened" is dependent upon a person's knowledge and actual level of defiance.

Answer 7

Too bad neither you nor your father matured enough to THINK about the issues properly!

ANYONE dying with mortal sin is condemned to eternal punishment. That has not changed! Another thing you must remember, really, is not we do not know what goes on in a person's mind.

Take the case of suicides. We know suicide is a sin. Hypothetically (since obviously, we have no way of knowing), if, in his/ her last moments, the person seriously repents his act, and asks for God's forgiveness, he may be forgiven.

As for eating meat on ANY Friday ... it's a free country! The Fridays of lent are days of abstinence; I do not know, nor care to know, the 'punishment' for not following it.

You can do some 'adult' research on this, for starters.

Answer 8

Paul and carl gave good answers. It is not the eating of meat that is a sin. It is the disobedience to the Church that jesus Christ established and the religious leaders that God called to guide His people that is the sin. If you disobey the one who the lord sent, you disobey God.

Eating meat on a friday during Lent out of absent mindedness or forgetting it is a Friday is not a sin.

May God grant you always...
A sunbeam to warm you,
A moonbeam to charm you,
A sheltering angel, so nothing can harm you.

Answer 9

While direct disobedience to the laws of the Church is a serious matter since Christ invested His full authority in His Church ("He who hears you hears Me"), breaking a law of fasting or abstinence is not ordinarily a mortal sin, or as the Holy Bible refers to it, a "sin unto death". God's Holy Church still has regulations today concerning fasting and abstinence, to help the people of God grow spiritually, and all Catholics are still bound by those rules, which are binding in heaven just as they are on earth. It is really pitiful that your dad waked away from the fullness of truth and the will of God over something so minor. Which one of the thousands of unapproved conflicting manmade denominations does he belong to now? Presumably one that teaches what he wants to hear.

Answer 10

what are you talking about? Fasting from meat is a discipline. I am not aware that the Church ever taught that not practicing a discipline was a mortal sin.

Answer 11

It will depend on why they didn't obey the Church. And it is still a mortal sin if you do it out of contempt for the Church of Christ.