Many Catholics Will Dishonor St Patrick This Friday

In way of review, please re-read my post from six years ago.  This year, St. Patrick's Day falls on a Lenten Friday, a day when we Catholics abstain from meat.  Yet even now we hear of Catholics asking for dispensation from the already-lenient Lenten discipline to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  Sadly - because many chanceries care not one whit about Lenten discipline nor even of eternal things in general, these chanceries will grant the dispensations without a minute's thought.

As I said in the post, I myself am of predominantly Irish descent.  Moreover, I grew up in the 1960s, when most Catholics were also of Irish descent and who were closely descended from Irish immigrants.  Yet never did I hear the slightest hint of suggestion that the Lenten practises should be set aside when March 17 fell on a Lenten Friday.  In fact, that was during a time when every day during Lent (not just Ash Wednesday and Good Friday) was a day of fast.  It is true that in Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is a Holy Day of Obligation, owing to St Patrick's pivotal role in the founding of their nation.  But those who came to the United States understood that they were leaving behind their national customs and were prepared to observe the customs of their new homeland.

On social media, particularly facebook, I'm seeing otherwise faithful Catholics chortle over the dispensations, like naughty little children about to get away with extra dessert.  To me that betrays a bit of reluctance to subject oneself to necessary disciplines.  How they salivate over corned beef has nothing to do with honoring the saint who is at least partially responsible for their Faith and more to do with satisfying their taste buds and stomachs.

We can - we must - do better than that.  Honor St. Patrick by honoring Lent.  Abstain from meat, dispensation notwithstanding.  Do not drink to the point of sinful intoxication (yes, all intoxication is sinful).  Do not trifle with leprechauns and other accoutrements of pagan practice.  Understand that there is nothing special about the color green.  Instead, go to Mass, pray a Rosary and/or stations of the Cross - practices that would truly please St. Patrick.

Those British Bishop Meanies! Don't They Know Fish Have Feelings, Too??

Thus pouts Bruce Friedrich, a vice president for PETA (bet you couldn't guess).  In his Huffington Post article on the topic, he sniffs that the bishops should include fish in the off-limits list for Fridays.  Why?  Well it seems that fish sing, have complex social structures, use tools, etc. 

What he says is most important is that fish feel pain.  He states with great angst that fish "are hooked, suffocated, crushed, impaled, cut open, gutted, all while still conscious, and they feel every agonizing second."  Gee!  Doesn't that sound similar to what happens to human babies as they're being aborted?

In his article, he has embedded a video of what happens to various animals as they are being butchered.  Below I embed a clip from the documentary entitled "Silent Scream", narrated by the late Dr Bernard Nathanson.  Watch it  There is no denying that a tiny child is being dismembered in the most cruel manner possible.  By the way - PETA, champions of so-called "compassion", waffle when it comes to opposing this barbarity against human babies; click here to listen to them squirm when questioned about their contradictory stances.  Rather makes Friedrich's self-righteous snit to be laughable, doesn't it?  Click here if you can't see embedded video.