Decree on dispensation for feast of St. Patrick

Each year, the Church sets aside the Season of Lent as a time of personal prayer and penance for the renewal of the Christian life. The Season of Lent begins with the observance of Ash Wednesday which, this year, occurs on March 1.

In order to assist the faithful to participate in this season of strong grace, the Church sets forth certain penitential practices to be observed. The principal practices are the observance of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday as days of fast and abstinence, and the observance of the Fridays of Lent as days of abstinence.

This year, March 17, the Feast of St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, falls on the second Friday of Lent. In light of the time-honored celebration of St. Patrick on his feast day by various parishes and groups within the Archdiocese of St. Louis, I am pleased to dispense, in accord with the norm of canon 87, §1, the just-mentioned parishes and groups, as well as the individual members of the faithful who participate in their celebrations, from the observance of Friday, March 17, 2006, as a day of abstinence from meat.

I encourage the faithful for whom the dispensation applies to choose another weekday of the Second Week of Lent as a day of abstinence from meat, in substitution for the observance on Friday, March 17.

Given at the offices of the Curia of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, on the 24th day of January, the Memorial of St. Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church, in the Year of the Lord 2006.

Most Rev. Raymond L. Burke
Archbishop of Saint Louis