No, neither the Church nor the Bible says that eating meat is a sin. In the book of Acts, St. Peter is instructed by God to slaughter and eat any animal (15:9-15). The Church asks us to abstain from eating meat on the Fridays of Lent as a penance, but that is not because eating meat is inherently sinful.
Also, on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all Fridays during Lent, adult Catholics over the age of 14 abstain from eating meat. During these days, it is not acceptable to eat lamb, chicken, beef, pork, ham, deer and most other meats. However, eggs, milk, fish, grains, and fruits and vegetables are all allowed.
A summary of current practice: On Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays of Lent: Everyone of age 14 and up must abstain from consuming meat. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday: Everyone of age 18 to 59 must fast, unless exempt due to usually a medical reason.
The law of abstinence forbids the eating of meat (of mammals and birds). However, eggs, milk products, fish, shell fish, and all other cold blooded animals may be eaten, e.g. snails.
Christians may eat pork because God has declared it once more to be clean. “What God has declared clean you must not call common” (Acts 10:15). Pork is one of those “foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth” (1Timothy 4:3).
Pope John Paul II upheld the church's traditional prohibition on condoms.
“Yes, it's a sin to eat meat on Fridays during Lent,” Riviere said. “The Church does ask Catholics to abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent.”
Flesh meat includes the meat of mammals and poultry, and the main foods that come under this heading are beef and pork, chicken and turkey. While flesh is prohibited, the non-flesh products of these animals are not, things like milk, cheese, butter, and eggs. Fish do not belong to the flesh meat category.
The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is unclean for you. And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.
This includes the meat from chickens, sheep, pigs, cows and other forms of livestock — any animal, really, that makes its home on land. This also includes birds. However, because fish make their home in the water, the Catholic Church does not consider fish a meat.
What are the Lent rules on abstinence? In this context, abstinence refers to “abstaining” from meat on Fridays during Lent. Whereas Catholics fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday with just one large meal, Catholics must refrain from eating meat on other Fridays, though they can have three full meals.
Here's why: meat was at one point considered an indulgence, so abstaining from meat on certain days is intended as a form of penance and a way for Christians to honor Jesus' sacrifice of his flesh on Good Friday. That means no meat from birds, cows, sheep, or pigs.
Abstaining from eating meat reflects the life of Jesus Christ. "Since Jesus sacrificed his flesh for us on Good Friday, we refrain from eating flesh meat in his honor on Fridays," the Archdiocese said.
The only dietary restrictions specified for Christians in the New Testament are to "abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals" (Acts 15:29), teachings that the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen, preached for believers to follow.
In Leviticus 11, the Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron and sets out which animals can be eaten and which cannot: “You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud. There are some that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof, but you must not eat them.
The Holy Tradition (written and oral) of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, while advising avoidance of olive oil, meat, fish, milk, and dairy products every Wednesday and Friday throughout the year, additionally includes four principal fasting periods per year when meat as well as dairy products and eggs are ...
According to Leviticus 11:3, animals like cows, sheep, and deer that have divided hooves and chew their cud may be consumed. Pigs should not be eaten because they don't chew their cud. The ban on the consumption of pork is repeated in Deuteronomy 14:8.
Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession. Do not eat any detestable thing. the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.
In Leviticus 11:27, God forbids Moses and his followers to eat swine “because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud.” Furthermore, the prohibition goes, “Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you.” That message is later reinforced in Deuteronomy.
Catholics. For most of the 40 days of Lent, Catholics can eat meat without restriction. Only Ash Wednesday and Fridays call for fasting. Catholics fast from red meat or white meat, i.e. warm-blooded mammals or birds.
As to lobster and shrimp, they are indeed fish, and so there is no prohibition against eating them on days of abstinence.
While chickens and other birds, cows, sheep and pigs are all considered meat, “salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles, (cold-blooded animals) and shellfish are permitted,” according to the Holy Spirit Parish.
The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onwards.
“If someone unintentionally eats meat by accident without willfully knowing they've done wrong, it's not a sin.
There is no direct statement on the subject by Jesus in the New Testament. The story of Jesus feeding fish to people would support the view that Jesus may have been a pescatarian. Paul seems to have been more open to meat eating, but even Paul was open to vegetarianism.