Where’s the beef? Dispensations allow Catholics to eat meat

By Harry Keaney

This St. Patrick’s Day, some people in Brooklyn may well be praying for deliverance from the tempting whiff of succulent corned beef.

While corned beef and cabbage has long been traditional St. Patrick’s Day fare in the U.S., church regulations dictate that Catholics over 14 abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and on Fridays during Lent.

St. Patrick’s Day falls on this Friday and in some areas a dispensation from the no-meat rule has been issued.

But not in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

According to a statement from the diocese, Bishop Thomas Daily is not granting a general dispensation for St. Patrick’s Day.

Making matters worse from Brooklynites is that in Manhattan, where thousands of Brooklynites will likely be attending the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, New York Catholics will be allowed to wolf down corned beef to their heart’s content. And with a clear conscience, too.

That’s because the Archdiocese of New York has granted a dispensation to the "no meat on Fridays" rule. "Catholics are permitted to eat meat on St. Patrick’s Day," Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the archdiocese, told the Echo.

Zwilling explained that St. Patrick is the patron saint of the archdiocese. "This is a feast day and a dispensation has been granted," he said, adding that it was not just for corned beef but for any meat.

Fr. Joseph Tierney of St. Joseph’s seminary in Yonkers said that the church teaches "that we abstain" from meat on Fridays during Lent and on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

But he said that, throughout the years, the archdiocese had given dispensations when St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Friday. However, he said that people should know there are good works they should do, not so much as to make up for not abstaining from meat but because they should be doing these good works anyway.

Tierney also pointed out that Cardinal O’Connor had, in the past, urged people to abstain from meat on Fridays "as a prayerful sacrifice against the horrors of abortion."

The statement from the Diocese of Brooklyn added that if individuals, for a serious reason, chose to excuse themselves, then they should substitute another penance, for example, abstaining from meat on another day.

The statement pointed out that clergy are allowed to "dispense people from the requirement to abstain on a person-by-person basis."

Throughout the U.S., different rules are in force regarding the eating of meat this Friday.

The archbishop of Chicago, Francis Cardinal George, OMI, has issued a dispensation, as has Bishop Edward Egan, bishop of Bridgeport, which covers much of southwestern Connecticut. However, farther north, in the Archdiocese of Hartford, no similar dispensation has been issued.

In the diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., there is a long tradition of issuing dispensations when St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Friday. Dispensations have also been granted when St. Joseph’s Day falls on a Friday during Lent to allow people indulge in zeppoli, which is fried dough dipped in sugar

In general, church officials agree that Catholics who do not abstain from meat on this Friday should perform some other penance or work of charity.