Catholics, can we eat meat this Friday? (St. Patrick's day)

[BrainRants]

What's the deal on this? Can we eat corned beef or not?

[Midlodemocrat]

1. It is up to the diocese to offer a dispensation

Unless the Pope does it. Previously, our diocese had always offered a dispensation.

[BrainRants]

3. Does that mean it's a regional thing then?

[Midlodemocrat]

8. I think so. But your diocese will most likely offer one.

[snacker]

2. I know they can here---probably depends on your diocese.

[tallahasseedem]

4. Yes!

Well at least my parish said we could....not that I follow that rule, but my Hubby does.

[ClintonTyree]

5. The old rules don't apply anymore.........

although there's a few million people roaming purgatory on a bum meat rap that would strenuously object. Go ahead, eat all the corned beef you want!

[godai]

49. LOL...and one mortal sin dooms you to eternity next to Hitler

At least purgatory is not forever and, I guess, a million or so years there is just a drop in the bucket compared to eternity in heaven, after parole.

[papau]

6. The Boston area has dispensation. n/t

n/t

[TallahasseeGrannie]

7. Evidently it is up to your bishop

http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_3590915

[FSogol]

9. Have Fish and Chips, with Guinness of course. n/t

[BrainRants]

12. That seriously just made my mouth water!

nt

[Geoff R. Casavant]

44. My mouth is watering too!

Fish and chips, with plenty of malt vinegar and salt.

[deadparrot]

10. Yes, indeed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060315/ap_on_re_us/st__patrick_s_beef

[Webster Green]

11. Yes, my son..

As long as you include cabbage, potatoes, carrots, onions, and beer.

[BrainRants]

16. Green Beer = Holy Water

nt

[evlbstrd]

24. Green beer is a mortal sin! nt

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. corned beef is not meat. It is a protein salad.

Guiness is soup for the soul.

[BrainRants]

14. OMG! Protein Salad! I love it!

:rofl:

[spuddonna]

21. LMAO!!!

I'll tell my hubby... He'll be right pleased!

"Guiness is soup for the soul"... Now that's a beauty!! :D

[malaise]

15. My mother was an obsessed Catholic

who took lent very seriously. One good Friday I took some hot cross buns over to our Catholic neighbour and there she was seasoning a chicken. I asked her how on earth she could be thinking of cooking a chicken on good Friday. She laughed out loud and said "Father if you want me to eat fish, change this bird to fish". She then laughed out loud and said there will be no miracles today so we will eat chicken. I was about ten years old and never forgot that. The lesson I learnt that day was that it hardly matters.
Of course I was an agnostic in my teens and gave up all religion before I was 20.

Add.

[BrainRants]

17. Great anecdote.

I remember hearing years ago that the fish on friday thing was a scam by the fishing business to pump up sales.

I live in Wisconsin so the Friday Fish fry is an institution.

[malaise]

19. I rarely eat anything but seafood

but they'll never 'catch' me with the high fish prices during lent and Easter.

[northzax]

20. nah, it's been around since about 100AD

long before the fishing business took over. It's a form of weekly penance, an abstention to remind you of the suffering of Jesus.

[Inland]

30. That's not true, either.

Eating fish wasn't an act of suffering; fish was holy food because fish spent all their time in water. Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either, until you realize there's not a damn thing wrong with fish unless you grew up in the Midwest before air delivery and the only fish was canned or salted or worse.

[Bridget Burke]

33. Look at this entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia...

If you manage to finish it, you will know more about Abstinence (not just from fish) than anyone who doesn't work at the Vatican really needs to know.

www.newadvent.org/cathen/01067a.htm

Fish has only recently appeared on the menus of fine restaurants in Ireland. Supposedly, this is because the Irish associated fish with Meatless Fridays. Of course, salted cod was probably all too common on Friday menus. Salmon usually had to be poached--& I'm not referencing a cooking method.

As a Catholic who attended Public Schools, I proclaim that I will NEVER eat another fish stick!

[Inland]

36. Thanks, but I got my information

from an exhibit at the Musee de la Civilisation in Quebec and the discussion of medieval christianity. Fish were holy because they lived in water.

Which I had never heard of but it immediately made sense. Fish is an expensive, delicious dish. There's record of complaints about guests hogging the fish and leaving the meat back in classical greece. Only people who are both poor and off the shores would asssociate fish with suffering, because they were the ones stuck with salted cod----but then again, by the time the cod banks off New England were being fished, the Irish would be damned lucky to get cod. In fact, it's an entirely nonsensical concept that I can go to Bob Chinn's and get a tuna steak, medium rare, or chilean sea bass, and suffer through it for christ's sake.

My guess is that eating fish became CONFUSED with fasting which also occurs during the easter season.

[northzax]

41. forget medieval

we're talking Roman era regulations. Fish may have been holy in medieval times, but this rule predates that as a custom, going back to 100-200 CE in the middle east.

[northzax]

18. why wouldn't you?

I bet Jesus ate meat on St. Patrick's Day. Course, it wasn't St. Patrick's then.

and yes, almost every bishiporic gives dispensations for St. Patrick's day, under Canon Law (1983) section 1250, which gives an exception for solemnities and allows the Conference to substitute another form of penance.

[RamboLiberal]

22. Pittsburgh Bishop is a - ehhh better not say it

A Note on Saint Patrick's Day
During Lent, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence. The Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence. Abstinence means that Catholics 14 and older are required to refrain from eating meat.

When St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Friday of Lent, as is the case this year, we need to remember that the saint’s feast is not considered reason for dispensation from the rule of abstinence.

Next Friday, March 17, is a Lenten Friday and remains a day of abstinence.

http://www.diopitt.org/

Weird thing is I'm a non-practicing Catholic - but I guess 12 years of Catholic school and my mother's browbeating has me still keeping the Lenten abstinence thing.

[Bridget Burke]

23. How about a nice bit of Irish smoked salmon?

Or oysters? I hear Ireland has some good ones--our own Gulf Coast oysters are a pretty fair substitute.

There are alternatives to fish sticks.

Of course, for many, eating is not the primary way to celebrate St Patrick's day.

[1620rock]

28. Being vegetarian it'll be corn beans and cabbage for St. Pats. nt

[Bridget Burke]

29. Don't forget the Beano!

And--what's wrong with potatoes? (Unless you don't eat anything with eyes.)

[davidinalameda]

42. we survived on salmon cakes

those things were so nasty but with enough ketchup, anything tastes good

[bleedingheart]

39. Hey Rambo!

Even though I am not Irish...I like corned beef and even if it is Lent I am having corned beef and all the fixings...

[sueh]

25. Cardinal George of the Chicago Archdiocese gave dispensation. n/t

[leftchick]

26. I believe it is not allowed

I gave up wine and I am dying here. :(

[rucky]

27. It may cost you a few "Hail Mary"s...

but I say go for it.

[Ikonoklast]

43. Do you mean that if I go outside and throw

a football as far as I can a few times, I can eat all the corned beef I want this Friday? Do I have to play for Notre Dame or Boston College, or does it apply to anyone?


Catholics sure are a funny bunch. (Lapsed Catholic here.)

[mdmc]

31. in nyc, yes

[Catherine Vincent]

32. If it's flesh, don't eat it.

But it's up to the individual to participate. The same goes for ashes.

[LondonReign2]

35. That too

Right, if it is ashes -- don't eat that either. :)

[Catherine Vincent]

38. LOL!

[DelawareValleyDem]

34. According to this, your area received dispensation

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060315/ap_on_re_us/st__patrick_s_beef_2

[WinkyDink]

37. Beef? Wouldn't touch it anymore.

[BiggJawn]

40. Didn't Vatican II change that?

Anyway, it's like the old joke about Ole the Lutheran who was pissing off his catholic neighbours in the Old Days by grilling venison on Fridays.

So Father goes over and talks Ole into converting. Ole agrees, and father sprinkles him and says "Ole, you born a Lutheran, you was raised Lutheran, but by God, NOW you're a CATHOLIC! You eat fish on Friday, understand?" "Ja, shore, Fadder, I unda-stans..."

so the next Friday, Ole's neighbours called the priest to complain that Ole was grilling venison again.

Father walks into Ole's back yard just in time to hear Ole say...

"Yoo vos BORN a Whitetail, yoo vos RAISED a Whitetail, but by yumpin' yimminy, NOW yoo is a WALLEYE!!"

[OnionPatch]

45. Corned fish brisket

Ewwwwww.....I'd stick with the fish n' chips. :)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

46. according to dead cardinal cody's replacement, beef's on for friday

He gave special dispensation for corned beef.

What's his name? I see it mentioned in all the sex crime reports - ah, yes. Cardinal George.

[nuxvomica]

47. "Whispers in the Loggia" blog is keeping a list

Of dioceses that are allowing the eating of meat on St. Paddy's.

That's 76 of 197, and there most certainly are more -- and as more come in, they'll be added here.... So keep 'em comin! And, again, go raibh maith to everyone who's lent a hand.

list:
http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2006/03/indult-scorecard-master-list.html

[JNelson6563]

48. I gave up liver and lima beans for lent

With sacrifice like that, surely they don't expect me to abstain from a traditional St. Patrick's day menu!

:toast: