Enjoy your corned beef on St. Patty’s Day, bishop says

OGDENSBURG, New York (WWNY) - For Catholics observing Lent, St. Patrick’s Day this year could pose a dilemma.

Because it’s a Friday, that means they should abstain from eating meat.

But what about corned beef?

Thanks to local custom and Bishop Terry LaValley of the Diocese of Ogdensburg, corned beef is back on the menu.

According to the diocese’s Facebook page, LaValley “has granted a dispensation from the law of abstinence from meat to those in the Diocese of Ogdensburg who observe the memorial of St. Patrick on Friday, March 17.”

Instead, the diocese said, the bishop is “asking that another act of penance be substituted sometime during Lent.”

Lent ends this year on April 6, the Thursday before Easter.

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