Corned Beef For IL Catholics On St. Patrick’s Day? Depends On Location

ILLINOIS — Any St. Patrick’s Day celebration worth its salt is sure to include corned beef and all the trimmings, but Catholics around the greater Chicago area and around Illinois face a dilemma this year based on when the annual Irish-loving holiday falls on the calendar.

Since St. Patrick’s Day falls on Friday next week, Catholics who observe Lent and are prohibited from eating meat on Fridays may have to sway from tradition based on where they live. In most instances, Catholics use Friday as a day of abstaining from meat since the death of Jesus took place on Good Friday. In its place, fish fry celebrations are held instead as a substitute for meat-eaters wishing to play by the Lenten playbook.

But next week’s St. Patrick’s Day Friday celebration has forced church leaders to make a call on whether the no-meat Friday rule has been ignored.

In several suburban areas — including in the Rockford diocese, which includes McHenry, DeKalb and Kane counties — church leaders granted a dispensation to local Catholics, allowing them to partake in meat-eating in observance of the holiday.

In exchange, Catholics are asked to “perform some act of charity of penance on that day in honor and respect to the Paschal Mystery of our Lord and Savior,” the dioceses announced.

Church leaders in the Joliet Diocese, which includes parishes in Kendall, Grundy, DuPage, Will, and Kankakee counties, are also allowing local Catholics to break from the church’s rulings of meat-free Fridays, making a one-time exception.

However, the Archdiocese of Chicago is holding firm to Lenten traditions, issuing a statement recently that Cardinal Blase Cupich would not issue a special dispensation that allows Chicago church members to break from their Lenten ways.

But, the dioceses did offer an alternative. In a statement, the diocese said that if Catholics find themselves at an event where meat is served in celebration of St. Patrick “may in good conscience substitute the rule of abstinence for another form of penance or a significant act of charity that benefits the poor.”

The statement continued, “It is important to take seriously the obligation to observe Fridays in Lent as a way of uniting ourselves to Jesus, who died on Good Friday. That should not be undervalued as we reflect on his sacrifice on the Cross for the salvation of the world in this holy season.”

Downstate, the Peoria diocese, which includes LaSalle County, and the Belleville Diocese, which covers much of the southern portion of the state, also provided a special dispensation that allows Catholics to eat meat.

In Springfield, a special dispensation was not offered for Catholics, but church leaders declared that churchgoers may seek out permission from the church based on “just cause,” the Springfield Journal-Register reported.

According to Catholic canon, Catholics age 14 and older are to abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent, which is the 40-day period, which represents the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness.

During Lent, which is observed from Ash Wednesday until the day before Easter, Christians practice fasting, abstinence, and penitence while focusing on repentance and their own mortality.