“If someone unintentionally eats meat by accident without willfully knowing they've done wrong, it's not a sin.
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.
Up until 1966 Church law prohibited meat on all Fridays throughout the entire year. The new law was promulgated in 1983 in the revised Code of Canon Law which states, “Abstinence [is] to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Canon 1251).
No meat should be consumed on Ash Wednesday. This is when most people start preparing Lent recipes. In addition, Ash Wednesday is an obligatory day of fasting.
Every day in the octave is a feast. But for most of the Church year, every Friday is a day of penance, and the ordinary way Catholics observe the penance is by abstaining from meat.
“Each Friday during Lent is actually referred to as Days of Penance,” the 33-year-old said. “If someone unintentionally eats meat by accident without willfully knowing they've done wrong, it's not a sin. I usually suggest they make sure to sacrifice something else in its place to make up for eating meat.”
Abstinence from meat on Fridays is done as a sacrifice by many Christians because they believe that on Good Friday, Jesus sacrificed his flesh for humanity. In Orthodox Christianity, in addition to fasting from food until sundown, the faithful are enjoined to abstain from sexual relations on Fridays as well.
The Church asked Catholics to abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent in memory of Good Friday, the day the Bible says Jesus died on the cross, Riviere said. Meat was chosen as a sacrifice because it was a celebratory food.
Christianity and Lent
Catholics generally don't eat meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, or any Friday during Lent, but they do eat fish. Some Christians give up something they enjoy, like chocolate, potato chips or coffee for the 40 days.
A. It is still considered a mortal sin to miss Mass on a day of obligation without a good reason. The church has always believed that this obligation stems from the Ten Commandments given to Moses, one of which was to “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
"Since Jesus sacrificed his flesh for us on Good Friday, we refrain from eating flesh meat in his honor on Fridays," the Archdiocese said. Johnston adds refraining from eating meat is a form of penance – admitting to any wrongdoings and sins while turning back to belief in God.
Adults are required to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, with the Good Friday fast ideally lasting through Saturday evening. In addition, everyone ages fourteen and older is required to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent.
While early Christians fasted on Fridays in memory of the Lord (who died on a Friday), the second century Christian teaching called the Didache, called upon followers of Christ to fast on both Wednesdays and Fridays. In 866 A.D., Pope Nicholas I made Friday abstinence from meat a universal rule of the church.
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.
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).
It simply meant abstaining from eating the flesh of warm-blooded animals—since the thinking goes, Jesus was a warm-blooded animal. Fish, though, which are cold blooded were considered okay to eat on fasting days. Hence, Fish on Fridays and “Fish Friday” (among many other religious holidays) was born.
However, Catholics do not eat chocolate during the month of lent. Chocolate is among the foods that Catholics avoid during the month of Lent in order to unite themselves more closely to Jesus in the desert.
On Good Friday, it's tradition to eat fish rather than meat. According to Christians, Jesus sacrificed his flesh on what is now known as Good Friday. This is why traditionally, people abstain from meaty flesh on Good Friday. Fish is viewed as a different kind of flesh, and so is favoured over meat on Good Friday.
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 Abrahamic religions, eating pig flesh is clearly forbidden by Jewish (kashrut), Islamic (halal) and Adventist (kosher animals) dietary laws. Although Christianity is also an Abrahamic religion, most of its adherents do not follow these aspects of Mosaic law and do consume its meat.
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.
*Everyone 14 years of age or older is bound to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, all the Fridays of Lent and Good Friday.
In 1966, Church law changed from prohibiting flesh meat on all Fridays throughout the year to abstaining on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
So in summary, we don't eat meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent. We fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. This is not complicated. And chicken is meat.
Catholics are required to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and each Friday in Lent (including Good Friday). Fish is often used as a substitute for meat-based meals. But of course, with the popularity of vegetarian and vegan diets, there are many other solutions besides fish.