Is Friday Penance Required?

[Franimus]

[quote name='StThomasMore' post='1161649' date='Jan 11 2007, 04:14 PM']
It is a mortal sin to eat meat on a Friday in Lent is you were doing so intentionally. It is also a mortal sin to eat meat on Friday without doing some other penance.
[/quote]
That I agree with (and agrees with what I at least [u]meant[/u] to say), but I was offering the alternate situation. By "fine" I meant no more than a venial sin, although I'm no authority. I didn't mean to come off as saying it's fine to do whatever.

[EcceNovaFacioOmni]

I was under the impression that it is no longer a grave matter with the new laws.

I stand to be corrected.

[Aloysius]

[quote name='toledo_jesus' post='1161668' date='Jan 11 2007, 04:32 PM']
actually, Akin is right. Nothing is [i]required[/i].

We are [i]encouraged [/i]to do something on Fridays. That word 'encouraged' should be visualized as pink and fluffy, surrounded by butterflies and pirouetting faires. yea, the fuzzy-wuzzy doodle bugs all rejoiced and danced in merriment.

And no meat is only for Fridays in Lent.

The bishops had perhaps too much faith in the common man's devotion.

edit to say that I abstain from meat every friday, and am generally disgusted at the lack of consideration displayed by the average layman.
[/quote]
this is not true. the US bishops encouraged us to do something on fridays, but the universal law of the Church requires all Catholics to either abstain from meat or substitute that with another penance as determined by the conference of bishops. their encouragement can only fit within the structure of the universal law (which [i]requires[/i] something to be done on all fridays). their encouragement to do something (that needn't be abstinence from meat) applies within the law to mean we are permitted to substitute within the confines of their very ambiguous allowance but the universal law still applies to us.

they do not bind us under pain of mortal sin for all fridays throughout the year, but I do believe they do bind it as a grave matter during lent. on all other fridays it would be a venial sin of disobedience to the Church to knowingly not do a penance specifically for friday.

the bishops never abrogated the requirement; they merely did not enforce it. but they didn't need to enforce it; it is enforced with the force of universal law on all Catholics. they recommend doing something that they do not require, but that the universal church does require.

Akin is totally wrong here.

the crux of his argument is his fallacious reasoning that the language "determine more precisely" gives the bishops' conference the authority to abrogate the requirement. it does not. it can be shifted in degree of binding, meaning that they no longer bind us under pain of mortal sin, but it cannot be totally abrogated. they do not have the authority from the universal law to abrogate the universal law's requirement of penance; they have the authority to determine it more precisely by substituting different penances and changing the degree to which it is binding. all Catholics everywhere in the world, however, still have some degree of binding directly from Rome.

the US Bishops did not even claim to abrogate the requirement. they merely said that they did not bind us (and that is true, Rome still binds us)