From The (Baltimore) Sun, 3/12/2000
Conflict for Irish Catholics: Lent and St. Patrick's Day
Dispensation is required to eat traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage
(From the Associated Press)
BOSTON - Some Irish Catholics might have a beef with the church on St. Patrick's Day.
This year, the March 17 holiday falls on a Friday in Lent, the period when Roman Catholics are encouraged to abstain from eating meat as an act of penance and a reminder of the sacrifices of Jesus Christ.
Many Catholic bishops, including Boston's and New York's, are giving dispensation to parishioners who want to partake of the traditional Irish-American meal of corned beef and cabbage.
But some bishops are refusing to let their congregations off the hook. In Fall River, Mass., Bishop Sean O'Malley has not issued a dispensation.
As a result, Catholics with it a hankering for corned beef on March 17 might be heading for nearby Boston.
An easing of the rules is not uncommon, particularly in dioceses where the Irish have a prominent role, said David Early, a spokesman for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Even without a dispensation, there is an out for Irish Catholics who don't want to ignore the rules but crave corned beef. They can go to another diocese where the meal is deemed OK.
"The application of a dispensation applies to the geographical region you happen to be in, not to you as a person Early said.
Jerry Burke, owner of Doyles Irish pub in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood, expects to sell thousands of pounds of corned beef and cabbage Friday.
"Corned beef and cabbage is a mainstay on our menu," Burke said. "And people are going to do it anyway."
New York's Cardinal John O'Connor - whom O'Malley is rumored to be a candidate to succeed - has granted the dispensation. But James T McHugh of the nearby Diocese Of Rockville Centre, N.Y., and Bishop Thomas Dailey of Brooklyn, N.Y., will not.
In Maine, Bishop Joseph Gerry has decided to grant dispensations on an individual basis.
"If a pastor calls and asks for a dispensation-- an Irish parish, for example - he'll grant it, rather than do a universal dispensation," spokesman Marc Mutty said.