Catholics who begin their celebration of St. Joseph’s feast day through Mass or Evening Prayer March 18 may eat meat that evening, according to a decree issued by Archbishop Bernard Hebda March 11.

The decree declares a dispensation under certain circumstances from the Lenten obligation to abstain from meat the evening before the March 19 liturgical celebration of the solemnity of St. Joseph.

The special dispensation recognizes graces received from the extraordinary Year of St. Joseph and the spiritual benefits of thanksgiving, Archbishop Hebda said.

“We undertake these spiritual efforts in order to unite and encourage the Archdiocesan family under the patronage of Saint Joseph, guardian of the Holy Family, to more perfectly cooperate in the work of salvation,” Archbishop Hebda wrote in the decree signed March 10. “Saint Joseph, pillar of families, comfort of the afflicted, and protector of the holy Church, pray for us!”

Even before Pope Francis declared an extraordinary Year of St. Joseph for the universal Church beginning Dec. 8, 2020, Archbishop Hebda had announced in October of that year that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis planned to consecrate the archdiocese to St. Joseph and hold a special Year of St. Joseph locally, in part to enrich the process for preparing for an Archdiocesan Synod in 2022.

The archbishop noted the providential coincidence in the archdiocese’s closing Mass of the extraordinary year in December, saying, “Pope Francis managed to take it up a notch.”

Also in that year, people in the archdiocese embraced spiritual exercises to honor and obtain graces from St. Joseph, such as monthly meditations on the saint through a series titled “Cuppa Joe,” and pilgrimages to parishes dedicated to the foster father of Jesus and husband of the Virgin Mary.

The special dispensation March 18 can be received by those who begin the solemnity of St. Joseph at the anticipatory Mass that evening, or that same evening taking time to pray “Evening Prayer 1, which is in honor of Saint Joseph,” according to the decree.

Offering a simple prayer of thanksgiving to St. Joseph while enjoying the benefits of the dispensation might be one way to capture the celebratory flavor of the dispensation, one archdiocesan official noted.

Penitential observances such as those on the Fridays of Lent are part of willingly suffering with Christ “so that we may one day be glorified with Him,” the decree states.

“This living desire is at the heart of the tradition of abstinence from meat on Fridays in Lent,” it continued. “Notwithstanding the privileged place of this penitential practice in the spiritual life, it is at times outweighed by the call even in Lent to celebrate with rejoicing and praise, such as on days with the rank of ‘solemnity.’”

One more Lenten Friday without meat will be celebrated March 25, the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. Because the day is a solemnity — an important feast day — there is no obligation to fast, despite it falling on a Friday.