This year, the
celebration of St. Patrick’s feast day on March 17th falls on a Friday during Lent.
In consideration of
the culinary traditions of this feast and in response to a number of requests,
Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., has granted to Catholics in the Fall River
Diocese a dispensation from the Lenten rule of abstaining from meat on that day.
Catholics are
asked to fast and practice abstinence in Lent as means of penance to unite in
the suffering and death of Christ, and to prepare for His resurrection on
Easter. In granting the
dispensation, Bishop da Cunha encourages those who choose to make use of it to
carry out some other sacrificial act or work of charity in keeping with the
spirit of the Lenten season.
