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Official: Observing St. Patrick's Day

This year the Feast of St. Patrick, March 17th, will be celebrated on Friday. People may ask about eating meat on this Friday in Lent.

Both canon law and a Pastoral Letter from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops provide for such an occasion.

The American Bishops wrote: "During the Lenten Season, certain feasts occur which the Liturgy or local custom traditionally exempts from the Lenten spirit of penance ..."

Those who wish to partake in a special meal in which meat is served on Friday, March 17th, are asked by the Church to pick another day to abstain from meat or perform some other noteworthy penance or act of charity in accord with the spirit of the Lenten season and the directives of the Bishops' Conference.

--Most Rev. David A. Zubik,
Bishop of Green Bay