Area Catholics given OK for St. Paddy's Day corned beef

Catholics on Delmarva won't have to mea culpa if they eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day.

Bishop W. Francis Malooly of the Diocese of Wilmington announced Thursday he had given Catholics in Delaware and on Maryland’s Eastern Shore permission in the form of a formal dispensation to ignore the Lenten obligation to not eat meat on Saint Patrick’s Day, which this year falls on a Friday. Traditionally, Catholics only eat fish on the Fridays between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

But, Malooly said in a diocesean press release, Catholics who choose to skip the fish on Friday and chow down on corned beef and cabbage won't get off scot-free. They are encouraged to perform some other penance, such as abstaining from meat another day.

READ MORE: Where to find a Friday fish fry during Lent

The Lenten tradition applies to members of the Roman Catholic Church from age 14 and up. Ash Wednesday, which was on March 1 and Easter is April 15.