The Archdiocese of Boston has given area Catholics the green light to eat corned beef this St. Patrick's Day, which falls on a Friday.
According to The Pilot, Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley, granted a one-time dispensation.
During Lent, Catholics in the United States ages 14 and over are required to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and each Friday afterwards until Good Friday concludes.
Because these are practices and not doctrine, a cardinal or bishop can grant a dispensation from the rules if he sees fit.
"This year, the Feast of St. Patrick, the patron saint of our Archdiocese, falls on a Friday during Lent. Given the importance of this feast in the life of the Archdiocese and in the lives of so many of our families, I am granting a dispensation from the Friday Lenten abstinence on March 17, 2017, to those who wish to take advantage of this opportunity," O'Malley wrote in a decree dated Feb. 28.
According to The Pilot, the last time a cardinal granted a dispensation from abstinence from meat was when St. Patrick's Day landed on a Friday in 2006.
