St. Patrick’s Day Menu Poses Wee Bit o’ Dilemma

Today is St. Patrick’s Day. It is also a Friday in Lent, when Catholics are asked not to eat meat. So when it comes to eating corned beef and cabbage to celebrate Ireland’s patron saint, what’s a good Irish Catholic to do?

‘Tis a little blarney an’ a bit o’ canon law to get ye out of this.

“Those who are wise enough don’t ask,” says Father Gerard O’Doherty, wrapping a lilting Irish brogue around the dilemma.

Of course, most of those at his parish, Our Lady of Loretto Church in Los Angeles, are Latino and Filipino. The question hasn’t come up. But O’Doherty, a native of “Dublin City,” as he puts it, says that he and another Irish priest have been thinking a wee bit about what to eat tonight when they go out for dinner.

“It might be heresy,” he confesses. “But we might eat Italian or Chinese.”

Not Msgr. Clement Connolly, a native of Limerick, Ireland, and pastor of Holy Family Church in South Pasadena. “I will be at the friendly Sons of St. Patrick, and we’ll all be eating corned beef and enjoying ourselves,” said Connolly, who once served as secretary to Cardinals J. Francis A. McIntyre and Timothy Manning.

In truth, under canon 1245 a priest can give individual dispensations during Lent from the meatless Friday rule to allow parishioners to observe a feast day like St. Patrick’s. A priest could also offer a commutation by substituting another penance.

Few doubt that an Irish priest would refuse such a request. After all, St. Patrick, a 5th century British missionary bishop said to have endured great hardship to plant the Catholic faith in Ireland, remains the country’s most popular saint and patron. But given the political tension between England and Ireland, could an English priest grant the dispensation?

“I’ve never run across a British priest in this archdiocese. I’m sure there must be one,” said Father Greg Coiro, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, with a hint of mirth in his voice. “We’ve got thousands of priests. I just don’t know one. We’ve got loads of Irish priests.”

Coiro has already peeked into the kitchen at his Franciscan friary in La Canada. “I have a feeling we may be getting corned beef and cabbage tonight, a day early.”

As for Coiro’s boss, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony? Despite the last name, Mahony’s mother was of German descent. His father was a mixture of German, Italian and Irish.

“I guess you could say that I am mostly German, with some additions of Italian and Irish heritage as well as some generic brands along the way,” Mahony once said. In any case, said Coiro, the cardinal never eats meat on Friday even when it isn’t Lent.

For all the talk of dispensation and canon law, most Catholics will decide for themselves.

“You know,” Connolly said, “it’s one of those things where I think a good Catholic would say, ‘I think the Lord’s calling me to celebrate!’ ”