Statement Concerning St Patricks Day on Friday March 17 2017

To Priests and Parish Staff:

The Church has set apart every Friday, the day on which our Lord suffered and died for us, as a day of special penitential observance, which includes for those 14 and older the requirement to abstain from eating meat. Outside of the season of Lent, we can personally elect to substitute another pious or penitential work in place of eating meat on Friday but, during Lent, we in the United States do not have this personal prerogative to exercise.

This year, St. Patrick Day falls on Friday, March 17, in the Second Week of Lent. Our Chancery Offices have received inquiries about whether or not the abstinence from meat will apply this year on St. Patrick Day.

Since many do not observe St. Patrick Day, rather than issue an archdiocesan-wide dispensation, Archbishop Vigneron will rely on his priests to dispense or commute the obligation of an individual or family to abstain from meat on Friday, March 17. All priests ministering in the Archdiocese possess the faculty to dispense (remove) or commute (replace with something else) the obligation for an individual or family to abstain from meat on the Fridays of Lent.

Therefore, those wanting to partake in a celebratory meal on St. Patrick Day that includes meat simply need to talk to a priest, who may grant this “for a just reason.” Priests should keep in mind the option to “commute the obligation to other pious works” rather than giving an outright dispensation, and that their faculty “may not be used to dispense the entire parish” from the obligation (Archdiocesan Priest Faculty 11).