The Knuckleheads of the Day award

This is an appropriate award for St. Patrick's day.

Today's winners are the Palm Beach Post newspaper, its Managing editor Bill Rose and one it's reporters Lona O'Connor. They get today's award for an article written by Ms. O'Connor last Wednesday. The subject was the subject of St. Patrick's day, the season of Lent, and the practice of abstinence.

There are several mistakes in the article

1- Its Monsignor John McMahon, not Mahon at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church.
2- Ms. O'Connor wrote-

In recent decades, the Catholic Church has allowed meat to be eaten once a day during Lent, except on Fridays, Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday. The young, the old and the sick generally are excused from the prohibition.

Meat can be eaten unlimited amount of times on non days of abstinence during lent.

Both of these can be confirmed by a check of the Palm Beach Diocese website. Click here. I also confirmed the later with one of priests at my church. Monsignor McMahon has been Pastor of St. Joan for over 25 years. I used to go to that church.

Now I informed Ms. O'Connor and Mr. Rose of this mistake on Wednesday. Two written editions of the Post have come out since, no correction has been made. The website has been corrected, but only for the first error. Ok two small mistakes and no immediate fix. Why make a big deal out of it?

Mr. Rose a month ago wrote a column about the paper taking errors seriously. Obviously with this story he didn't.

There is a third error or sign of the Anti-Catholic bias the Post is known for. It begins with the very first sentence of this article.

Narrowly averting a clash between Catholicism and cuisine, Bishop Gerald Barbarito of the Palm Beach Diocese has given his diocese permission to eat meat Friday.

Nothing was narrowly averted. This decision by Bishop Barbarito was made three weeks ago. I know, my wife works as a receptionist for our church.

Then there's the article's ending.

Nonetheless, Jean Bown of Boynton Beach, who attends St. Thomas More Catholic Church, and her husband, Duke, are headed to Miami to eat corned beef and cabbage with her children. Informed that the dispensation was not lifted in Miami, she remained firm.

"Well, then, I'm afraid I'm going to sin," she said with a laugh. "Yup, I'm going to do it."

Both Ms. Bown and Ms. O'Connor are ill-informed. I'm typing this from Miramar, in the Miami diocese. I could have eaten meat tonight, I didn't. It is where the person is a parishoner, not what diocese they are currently in.

For writing, wrongly correcting and publishing A Anti-Catholic ill-informed story, Lona O'Connor, Bill Rose and their employer The Palm Beach Post are today's Knuckleheads of the day.

Cross posted to Bullwinkle Blog
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Narrowly averting a clash between Catholicism and cuisine, Bishop Gerald Barbarito of the Palm Beach Diocese has given his diocese permission to eat meat Friday.

Normally Catholics do not eat meat on Fridays during Lent, which would be a sin, though not a grave one. But Friday also happens to be St. Patrick's Day, when the traditional meal is corned beef and cabbage.

For Irish-Americans, not to indulge in that hearty meal would be a sin of the culinary sort.

Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday, is the Christian season of abstinence and prayer, meant to purify the spirit and body for the resurrection of Christ. Barbarito reminded his flock that this year's St. Patrick's Day exception should not distract Catholics from the normally penitential spirit of the season.

In recent decades, the Catholic Church has allowed meat to be eaten once a day during Lent, except on Fridays, Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday. The young, the old and the sick generally are excused from the prohibition.

By contrast, St. Patrick's Day, which honors the man who converted the whole Irish nation, is a much more raucous occasion, often involving very un-Lentenlike celebrations and free-flowing quantities of beer and whiskey.

Then of course there is corned beef and cabbage, fragrant and fatty and cooked until the meat and vegetables fall apart on the plate. That dish is favored more by Irish-Americans than their Gaelic brethren, who subsisted on potatoes and cabbage during hundreds of lean years before the 20th century brought more prosperity to the country.

Father Brian Horgan, pastor of St. Lucie Catholic Church in Port St. Lucie, is giving his staff St. Patrick's Day off, though he will say Mass as usual. Born in Cork, Ireland, he said a few prayers in Gaelic at Mass on Sunday.

At St. Joan of Arc in Boca Raton, with its Irish-American pastor Monsignor John Mahon, the celebration started Monday with his parish staff dressing in green. In fact, McMahon has been so busy this week he didn't even know whether corned beef would be on the menu at the rectory Friday.

The Palm Beach Diocese, which serves Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties, has relaxed the Lenten rules for St. Patrick's Day several times in the past when the holiday fell on a Friday during Lent, most recently in 2000.

The Archdiocese of Miami did not relax the rules for its Catholics, who must apply on a case-by-case basis to their priests if they want to eat meat.