EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Bishop Mark J. Seitz has given Catholics permission to eat meat on St. Patrick’s Day and on the ordination of the first auxiliary Bishop of El Paso, Father Tony Celino.
Bishop Seitz says the two events both fall on Fridays during Lent. The first being the feast of St. Patrick’s Day which lands on Friday, March 17 and the second being the ordination of the first auxiliary bishop of El Paso, Father Tony Celino, which lands on Friday, March 31.
Catholics worldwide usually abstain from eating meat during the Fridays of Lent. However, canon 87 §1 of the Code of Canon Law provides bishops with the authority to suspend the obligation of abstaining from eating meat on particular Fridays if it’s a special event or feast.
Bishop Seitz stated, “On these two joyous occasions, by the authority given to me by Canon Law, I dispense the faithful and all those present in the Diocese of El Paso from the obligation to abstain from eating meat.”
