Given the Church’s discipline which Catholics aged 14 and over are required to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and each Friday during the Season of Lent. This year, however Friday of the third week of Lent corresponds with Saint Patrick’s Day (March 17) which has traditionally been an occasion of importance in the lives of so many in the Diocese of Youngstown. Having taken into consideration both past practices and present circumstances, and having judged that it would serve the spiritual good of the faithful, Bishop Bonnar has granted to the faithful of the Diocese of Youngstown, as well as to any visitor or travelers who may be physically present within the territory of this diocese, a dispensation from the obligation of abstinence from meat on March 17, 2023.

Those taking advantage of the dispensation are urged to make some other act of Lenten sacrifice of charity, such as the public celebration of the Stations of the Cross, the giving of time in a charitable way, the spending of time in devout prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, praying for vocations, the Divine Mercy Chaplet or the Rosary.