Bishop issues dispensation for the memorial of St. Patrick

Bishop Michael Mulvey has issued a dispensation from the requirement to abstain from eating meat on Friday, March 17. This Friday is the Memorial of St. Patrick and the faithful will be allowed to eat meat. The bishop does urge, however, “as an act of charity…all who will make use of this dispensation pray for peace and for all Christians in this country and abroad who are persecuted for our faith in Jesus Christ.”
 
The bishop’s action came after receiving several requests from the faithful. “Therefore, given the deep Irish roots in the Diocese of Corpus Christi…I hereby dispense any of the faithful of the Diocese of Corpus Christi and those present within the territory of the Diocese from the required observance of abstinence from meat on Friday, March 17, 2017 for the celebration of the Memorial of St. Patrick.”
 
St. Patrick in the secondary patron of the Diocese of Corpus Christi.
 
Bishop Mulvey also encourages all who are celebrating this memorial to “attend Mass in honor of St. Patrick if possible or at least to participate in some other pious action such as the praying of the Rosary, whether individually, in groups, or as a family.”

(Image by Nheyob (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)