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Post by Pacelli on Mar 17, 2021 17:55:12 GMT -5
There is always a question about what the Pre-Vatican II practice was in regards to the St. Patrick's Day dispensation from Lenten Fast and Abstinence. I am morally certain from the testimony of older Catholics that remember the old days that it was certainly dispensed every year. But, as there is always a question about the matter, so I decided to research it, and look up practices in random dioceses to see how it was handled by hierarchy. Here are my findings: 1. The hierarchy began dispensing St. Patrick's Day with the approval of Rome in the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century when the feast fell on Friday, allowing meat to be eaten on Friday. 2. The hierarchy began expanding the dispensation to allow Catholics to not only eat meat if it fell on Friday, but also dispensing from the fasting laws of Lent on that feast. 3. Although Rome allowed the local bishops to dispense, they needed to ask and receive the approval to dispense from the Lenten laws. Not every diocese did this, so if one is going to presume that their diocese was included in the dispensation, the Catholic should be sure his diocese was dispensed as a regular practice prior to Vatican II. 4. Some dioceses did not give a general dispensation to all Catholics, but only gave the dispensation to Catholics of Irish's decent. 5. To the best of my knowledge, the dispensation only applied to Latin Rite Catholics, not to our Eastern Catholic brothers in the Faith. I am posting below a sampling of Pre-V2 dispensations given to Catholics in various dioceses to show the policy that existed in the Church prior to the Council:
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Post by Voxxkowalski on Mar 17, 2021 23:28:50 GMT -5
who has the authority today to offer the dispensation...that is the question
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Post by Pacelli on Mar 18, 2021 7:39:20 GMT -5
who has the authority today to offer the dispensation...that is the question No one. A Catholic may presume that if the authority gave the dispensation year after year, then it is reasonable to conclude that the practice would have continued, if the lawful authority was still present. It's the same issue with the national holiday dispensation given routinely through the 20th century. Every time a national holiday fell on a Friday, the bishops with permission from the Holy See would dispense Catholics from the abstinence. There are no Latin rite bishops that we know about today, so Catholics act according to the precedent set by the Pope and the pre-V2 bishops and conclude that the dispensation would still be given as it was a regular practice of the hierarchy.
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Post by Pacelli on Mar 16, 2022 7:34:33 GMT -5
Bump. I wish everyone a happy Saint Patrick's Day tomorrow!
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