Dispensing with Lent for St. Paddy’s Friday

St. Patrick's Day is on a Friday in Lent. So can you eat corned beef. If you've got a dispensation, sure.

Ash Wednesday is fast approaching, and with it the season of Lent — the liturgical period during which Catholics focus on the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Foremost in some Catholics’ minds as they prepare for Lent is the perennial question: What about St. Patrick’s Day?

For Catholics all across America, March 17, the feast of the 5th-ce…