Corned Beef OK For NJ Catholics On St. Patrick's Day, Archdioceses Say

NEW JERSEY — No need for Catholic guilt if you take a bit of corned beef on St. Patrick's Day this year, even though it's on a Friday in Lent.

The feast day of the patron saint of Ireland is March 17, a Friday. In the Roman Catholic Church, it is a holy obligation for most adults to abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent, the liturgical season before Easter.

But New Jersey Catholics who are looking to chow down on corned beef, sausages, or shepherd’s pie on St. Pat's have the blessing to do so by leaders of church organizations across the state.

The Archdioceses of Newark, Camden, Metuchen, Paterson, and Trenton all granted permission for Catholics in their areas to eat meat on Friday the 17th, and offered another action they may do to mark the obligation.

Bishop Checchio (Metuchen) offered that Catholics may abstain from meat on another day that same week and fulfill their penitential obligation.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin (Newark) advised parishioners to make a substitution "in the form of fasting, prayer and/or almsgiving" if they have a meat dish on St. Patrick's Day.

And Bishop David M. O'Connell (Trenton) suggested residents and visitors in that archdiocese abstain from meat another day during the week, or "perform a work of charity (for example, a donation to the poor) or some exercise of piety (for example, a visit to Church and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, a rosary, or some other prayer, etc.) to fulfill the spirit of the obligation.”

Orthodox Christians, who follow a different calendar, have a more strict period of Great Lent before they celebrate Easter.

The Irish and Irish-American spirit is strong in New Jersey, with more than 13 percent claiming Irish ancestry in the Garden State according to the US Census Bureau’s 2016-2020 American Community Survey. Last year, legislators approved legislation designating March as “Irish-American Heritage Month” in New Jersey.