March 9, 2007

Catholics may eat meat on Friday before St. Patrick’s Day

Many parishes and cities across the Archdiocese of Indianapolis are planning on holding St. Patrick’s Day celebrations on March 16 this year—the day before St. Patrick’s Day.

March 16, a Lenten Friday, is a penitential day for Catholics when they do not eat meat or soups or sauces made from meat.

Recognizing that this is a traditional day of celebration for many Catholics and that a person cannot celebrate and do penance at the same time, Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein has commuted

the obligation for Catholics of the archdiocese to abstain from meat on March 16.

Commutation means that those persons in the

archdiocese who wish to eat meat on the Friday before St. Patrick’s Day are free to do so provided that they abstain from meat on some other day during the week of March 12. †

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