WORTHINGTON -- Traditionally, Irish-Americans eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day. Traditionally, Catholics consider it a sin to eat meat on Fridays during the Lenten season.
A corned beef conundrum, indeed.
From Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley in Boston to Cardinal Francis E. George in Chicago, a number of Catholic bishops have granted dispensations, including many who don't have surnames that bring to mind leprechauns and the Emerald Isle.
More than 80 of the 197 dioceses in the United States have provided the dispensation for their parishioners for today, including the Diocese of Winona.
Rose Hammes, Director of Communications for the Diocese of Winona, said any time St. Patrick's Day falls on a Friday the dispensation is given.
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Unlike some dioceses, which are asking their members for a similar day of penance in exchange for the relaxed rule for today, the Winona Diocese is not requesting the day be "paid back" with fasting on another day.
"It is just a blanket dispensation, no other day of no meat is not required," Hammes said.
The tradition of not eating meat on Fridays actually began in the first century when meat was a luxury food reserved for the rich. Vegetables could be foraged for and fish could be caught. To have meat, a man had to have enough money to buy it or enough land to raise it. Christians fasted on Mondays and Thursdays, denying themselves meat and substituting the poor man's fish.
After Jesus was crucified, the days of fasting were changed to Wednesdays and Fridays. The Roman Catholic Church downplayed the Wednesday fasts, but hung on to the Friday fasts until the rule changed to only include Fridays in Lent.
In the Roman Catholic Church, the fasts were relaxed because they were not being observed and because the church realized that Lobster Thermidor or even a modest dinner at a seafood restaurant hardly lived up to the spirit of a fast.
The corned beef connection to Ireland dates back to colonial times in Boston, when meat preserved in salt was imported from Ireland. The result - corned beef.
