Can Catholics Swallow Meat on St. Patrick's Day?

St. Patrick'south Day falls on a Friday this year, which has many Catholics (of Irish descent or otherwise) wondering whether they can celebrate this 24-hour interval with their traditional corned beefiness and cabbage. You come across, Fridays in Lent are days when Catholics are spring past the law of the Church to abstain from meat. Every time St. Patrick's Day falls on a Fri, stories starting time to float around of special permission being granted for Catholics to eat corned beefiness. Then is at that place really an exception to our normal Lenten penance for our favorite Irish saint?

Yes and no.

Here'southward the situation. Every Friday during the year is considered a day of penance according to Canon Constabulary (can. 1250). For most of the yr, Catholics in the The states are free to choose how they volition find that penance. However, during Lent, the Fri penance must exist observed by abstaining from mankind meat (pregnant warm blooded animals, then fish and reptiles are OK). Observing this common penance during Lent helps to foster solidarity in the Church. At that place is also something to exist said for the witness given by practicing a tradition in common.

But there are exceptions. When a solemnity falls on a Friday, that day is not observed as a solar day of penance. This is considering solemnities are celebratory. They are the highest feast days of the Church, and one cannot feast and fast at the aforementioned time. So when a solemnity falls on a Friday during Lent (equally sometimes happens with the Solemnity of St. Joseph on March nineteen), Catholics do not have to abjure from meat on those days.

So what nigh St. Patrick? Is his feast twenty-four hour period a solemnity? For virtually of the earth, the answer is no. It is non.

We commonly refer to the observance of a saint's day as a "feast" but technically it tin exist ane of several things depending on the saint's prominence and how much emphasis the Church wishes to give to its celebration. At the top of the ranking are solemnities, but then in that location are feasts, memorials, and optional memorials. This ranking organization determines whether a saint's solar day must exist celebrated, or may exist celebrated, too every bit what observance takes precedence when in that location are overlaps on the calendar.

To make matters more than complicated, the ranking of a saint'southward feast tin can also differ based on where you are in the earth. St. Patrick's Day is a perfect example. In Republic of ireland and Australia, it is observed every bit a solemnity. In Scotland, Wales and New Zealand information technology is observed equally a feast. For the rest of the world, including the The states, information technology is an optional memorial. That means in Republic of ireland and Australia, on Friday, March 17 this year, Catholics are complimentary to swallow meat every bit usual, considering that Friday is not a day of penance. But for the remainder of the world, the Fri penance nonetheless stands.

Unless information technology doesn't. Individual bishops are free to brand exceptions. Why would they exercise this? A bishop might grant a dispensation if in that location is a significantly big Irish immigrant population in his diocese, or if St. Patrick is the diocesan patron. Moreover, there are different ways a bishop might practice this. He may simply grant an exemption from the Fri abstinence. Or he may, more likely, dispense from the requirement to abstain from meat but still require the true-blue in his diocese to detect penance in some other way that day. I have heard of some bishops granting a dispensation to those who participate in a Mass that day. In whatsoever instance, whatever impunity an individual bishop chooses to make, it applies merely in his diocese and has no effect on Catholics in other parts of the world.

What about the Diocese of Charlotte? To the best of my knowledge, Bishop Peter Jugis has granted no such impunity allowing Catholics to eat meat on St. Patrick's day this year, corned beef or otherwise. If I hear differently, I will exist sure to let everyone know.

In the concurrently, there are plenty of means to honor this dearest saint without eating corned beef. St. Patrick was a holy man, a caring pastor, and friend of Christ. There is no better way to honour him than with our prayers and devotions, by keeping a holy Lent, and preparing ourselves to celebrate with joy the risen Christ at Easter.