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I thought that made the point that: yes, eating meat on a Friday in Lent IS sinful for a Catholic but no, you don't go to Hell for doing it. Perhaps I should have been more explicit.

Frankly, I have the seal of God, that I have eternal life, so going to hell is not an option for me or my wife

Certainly the Church has the authority to order a fast of it's members. And for centuries, we as a body have fasted together during the time of Lent (with variations as has been posted by others) and at certain other times. This is a sacrifice we make as Catholics in rememberance of far greater sacrifices made on our behalf.

You are acting as though the hierarchy came to the people and asked them if they would please fast from meat every Friday for a good cause, and they all said, we'd love to, and you know it didn't happen that way, you had the power to "bind and Loose", and it took you all those years to have mercy on your people, you should be ashamed of your selves, and that was exactly what Jesus meant when he told those who made the law, that put grievous burdens on the people then wouldn't use a finger to lift it off of them.

Lk 11:46 And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.

Mt 23:4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

My point (poorly made if your response is any indication) is that your wife's understanding was somewhat... unrefined. Catholics recognize that they have fallen short of the ideal (sinned) by not living up to the sacrifice we corporately choose to make.

Unrefined? Thanks again, it is you who are unrefined, my wife will be your teacher in the kingdom of God if you make it, and if God judges you by your own works standards, you have a lot ahead of you yet.

Watch your chain doesn’t come off your sprocket from back peddling so fast, it seems SD can't leave you guys unattended for a full weekend without you blowing it.

My we have a lot of energy tonight don't we?

You're acting like I was insulting your wife. A practice which I shun. I merely said (as I thought you had agreed) that she did not understand Catholic teaching on the subject (which is the Church's fault and not hers). "Unrefined" was, I thought, a way to say that she had in incomplete understanding of the idea behind meatless Fridays. Please don't go on about how wonderful your wife is by comparison to me - I am not in doubt - although "my wife could beat up your wife nanny nanny boo boo" :-)

I infer from your response that you agree that my example situation would be an occasion of sin, but disagree that it parallels the RCC position. If so, I think I made my point - you agree it is objectively sinful, but that you don't go to hell for it. The disagreement (in your somewhat heated response) seems to be the Church's authority to call a fast. I'm afraid we must disagree there. I place myself under the Church's authority by remaining a Catholic, so yes, the fast is by my own decision (and that of every Catholic).

I should say though, you have done much better this time, and if you hadn't offended me by telling me that my wife could not have been a good catholic, when all you knew about her was that she thought eating meat on Friday was a sin, which she had learned being brought up in a devout catholic family, and attending a catholic school until she graduated.

How did you think she learned the wrong teaching on meatless Friday, do you think she read it in the Bible? No, she learned it from her parents and nuns, and her friends, so if they were all wrong, you do have a communication problem.

She had never missed a Sunday Mass, so why wasn't it taught from the pulpit until they knew everyone understood? How much time do you think the priest spent educating them?

Uninformed Protestants do not show their ignorance of the church teachings by doing works; they simply do nothing, which is probably better since they have no false sense of security.

What I'm saying is, don't be discouraged, you're doing good, but don't be afraid to say I made a mistake, and will be more careful next time.

Also, you got into all this by defending the church when I said meatless Friday was a tradition with no Biblical backing, and a useless law, and that is still true.