A nagging question nettles me,
Concerned about an oversight,
And I ask it, dutifully,
In case we need to set things right.


Decades have passed since that great day,
But many remember it well:
The Church decreed it was okay,
Offenders would not go to Hell.


On Fridays, it had been taboo -
Eat meat and you'd risk damnation.
Nibble on a burger and you
Could lose all chance for salvation.


But if confession intervened,
Before the sinner expired,
Mortal sin from that soul was cleaned,
Till next time the grill was fired.


For clergy, a courageous act,
Admitting that Church law was wrong.
Millions sent to suffer, the fact,
In Hell, where they didn't belong.


Thank Heaven for Rome's wise decree,
Affecting much of humankind.
Was it passed retroactively,
No formerly damned left behind?