Recognizing the cultural traditions surrounding St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, which this year occurs on a Friday in Lent, Bishop Matthew H. Clark is dispensing the faithful of the Diocese of Rochester from the Lenten obligation to abstain from meat on that day. Some other form of penitential act, such as abstaining from meat another day of that week, is encouraged, Bishop Clark noted.
Catholics and other Christian denominations traditionally observe the Lenten season by fasting, almsgiving and prayer. For Catholics, Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat, but a diocesan bishop may dispense the faithful of his diocese from that obligation.
