Tenn. Catholics get OK to eat meat on St. Patrick’s Day
NASHVILLE - It’s still Lent, but Catholics across Tennessee can eat corned beef — or any other meat — on St. Patrick’s Day since the holiday falls on a Friday this year.
Catholics are expected to abstain from eating meat on Fridays during the somber and penitent Lenten season. But leadership in all three of the Roman Catholic dioceses that cover the state have lifted that rule for one day so their members can celebrate the Ireland apostle’s holiday. It’s called a dispensation, and not all dioceses grant them.
Leaders of the Catholic Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee granted a dispensation from both personal Lenten obligations and those prescribed by church law, said Bishop Martin Holley and Vice Chancellor Adam Rust in a letter.
However, all three Tennessee dioceses expect members who take advantage of the St. Patrick’s Day dispensation to make up for it in another way.
“I strongly encourage all who make use of this dispensation to engage in another sacrificial or charitable act on another day,” the Memphis diocese’s letter says.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville, which has Irish heritage and has granted dispensation in the past, also encourages those who use it to perform another charitable, penitential or sacrificial act, said Rick Musacchio, spokesman for the diocese.
In the Diocese of Knoxville, Bishop Richard Stika requested that members abstain from meat on Thursday if they’re not doing so on Friday, according to a post on the diocese’s website.
The abstinence from meat on Fridays during Lent applies to Catholics ages 14 and up, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Lenten season begins with Ash Wednesday, and this year it spans March 1 to April 15, excluding Sundays. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, the Friday prior to Easter Sunday, are obligatory days of fasting as well as abstinence.