St. Patrick’s Day Corned Beef Quandary: Can Catholics Eat It During Lent?

MILWAUKEE, WI — Every time St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Friday during Lent, faithful Roman Catholics who don’t eat meat on Fridays face a conundrum. The Feast of St. Patrick is rooted in the Catholic Church, but the holiday is hardly on par with Lent.

So, when it comes to honoring the patron saint of Ireland and honoring Christ’s sacrifice with the penitential act of eschewing meat, it’s not even close. Back to the quandary Catholics face: Can they enjoy the traditional meat dishes of the day — corned beef and cabbage, lamb, bacon and shepherd’s pie?

In Milwaukee, the answer is yes, go ahead and eat meat with a clear conscience.

In a special dispensation to the practice, Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki suspended the practice of not eating meat on Fridays for St. Patrick’s Day, but encouraged Catholics to engage in another sacrificial or charitable act that day.

Two new auxiliary bishops appointed by Pope Francis earlier this year will also be ordained for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Friday — Milwaukee native Jeffrey R. Haines and Burlington native James T. Schuerman. The ordination, a ticketed event, takes place at a 2 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 812 N. Jackson St., Milwaukee, with a reception to follow.

In granting the special dispensation allowing Catholics to eat meat on St. Patrick’s Day, Listecki wrote:

“The disciplinary practice of abstaining from meat on the Fridays in Lent is an important dimension of the penitential nature of the season. This year, the Feast of St. Patrick, March 17, 2017, falls on a Friday in Lent. Given the many celebrations that occur on this day and especially as we in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee will be ordaining our two new auxiliary bishops, in accord with the norm of law, I herewith grant to all Catholics of the Archdiocese as well as all present here that day, a dispensation from abstinence from meat and meat products. I encourage all who make use of this dispensation to engage in another sacrificial or charitable act that day.”

That’s not the case in every archdiocese. In Detroit, Michigan, for example, Catholics have to get an exception from their priest “for a good reason.”

That policy runs counter to special St. Patrick's Day dispensation decrees in place in several other large cities, according to the Catholic News Service. Besides Milwaukee, they also include Baltimore, Maryland; New York City; St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota; Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Omaha, Nebraska; and Jefferson City, Missouri.

Until Vatican II, an assembly of 2,400 Roman Catholic bishops in the 1960s that liberalized some church practices, every Friday was meatless.

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Photo by jeffreyw via Flickr Commons