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The New York Times
U.S.
St. Pat's Spat Pits
Church Vs. Cities
By AP from
nytimes.com on the Web, February 21, 2008
COLUMBUS, Ohio Feb. 20 -- That
famous saint named Patrick will have his green-drenched party this year, but
it's unclear when the guests are supposed to arrive.
For the first time since 1940, St. Patrick's Day will fall during Holy Week, the
sacred seven days preceding Easter.
Because of the overlap, liturgical rules dictate that no Mass in honor of the
saint can be celebrated on Monday, March 17, according to the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops. But a few Roman Catholic leaders are asking for even
more moderation in their dioceses: They want parades and other festivities
kept out of Holy Week as well.
Bishop J. Kevin Boland of the Diocese of Savannah, Ga., wrote to practically
every agency in his city, from the Chamber of Commerce to the Board of
Education, saying the diocese was changing the date of its celebration this
year. In response, the citywide Irish festival was moved to Friday, March
14, when schools will close and bagpipe-driven parties will carry into the
streets.
More than half a million people stream into the Southern city for the festival,
one of the nation's largest St. Patrick's Day affairs, said Bret Bell,
Savannah's public information director. Savannah bars will be open March
17, but no organized events will be held that day, he said.
''The city has a very strong Irish Catholic community, a very traditional Irish
Catholic community,'' Bell said. ''They attend Mass regularly. And
the last thing they want to do is get in the bad graces of the Catholic
Church.''
Philadelphia has also moved its parade date to avoid giving offense, and
Milwaukee is hitting the streets sooner than usual, too.
But in Columbus, the Shamrock Club is going ahead with its March 17 parade,
drawing protests from the local bishop. A handful of Irish-American
politicians have lined up behind church leaders, breaking with tradition by
refusing to march in the parade.
In a letter last fall, the Catholic Diocese of Columbus told the Shamrock Club,
the group that organizes the parade, that Bishop Frederick Campbell wanted ''all
observances honoring St. Patrick'' -- religious or otherwise -- removed from
Holy Week.
''It's not a sin to celebrate your Irish culture,'' countered Mark Dempsey, the
club's president.
''Actually, you're born Irish first,'' he said, ''and then you're baptized
Catholic.''
Not all Columbus Irish groups agree. Members of the local chapter of the
Ancient Order of Hibernians, a national Irish Catholic organization, will skip
the parade and will instead join the March 15 parade in Dublin, a Columbus
suburb.
In New York and Boston, with legendary St. Patrick's events planned by the
cities' large Irish communities, bishops are taking a hands-off approach, saying
the church has no part in planning civic celebrations.
The Archdiocese of New York, which has St. Patrick as a patron saint, will hold
the liturgical celebration for St. Patrick on March 14. Cardinal Edward
Egan will then say Mass on Monday, the same day as the parade, and will review
the procession from the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral, archdiocesan spokesman
Joseph Zwilling said.
Boston's parade remains set for Sunday, March 16, which is Palm Sunday and the
first day of Holy Week.
Other public dustups over St. Patrick's Day have erupted in past years,
including a protracted fight between gay Irish groups and city leaders in New
York and Boston over the right to march in the parades, which the Catholic
Church has steadfastly opposed.
But a calendar conflict is a rare event: Holy Week won't clash with St.
Patrick's Day again until 2160. This year's peculiar schedule also sees
the feast day of St. Joseph -- honored by Catholics as the husband of the Virgin
Mary -- celebrated March 15, four days early.
Italian enclaves in many U.S. cities mark St. Joseph's with their own parades,
but not on the level inspired by his Irish counterpart, so that shift hasn't
produced any public grousing.
The St. Patrick's Day clash has a touch of the Christmas commercialism debate,
about a holiday whose religious roots are tangled up in decidedly secular
traditions. In most St. Patrick's traditions, parades are intertwined with
Mass.
''It's kind of a test of clerical power, in a way,'' said Mike Cronin, co-author
of ''The Wearing of the Green: History of St. Patrick's Day.'' ''I
think there's a real issue then around organizing committees saying, 'Do we need
the church, or do we not?'''
The U.S. remains one of the few countries in the world to retain any religious
traces of St. Patrick's Day, Cronin said. In Ireland, where the government
sponsors the Dublin parade, the holiday has morphed into an arts festival that
draws millions of people, he said.
Recognizing that, bishops there have moved the feast of the nation's patron
saint to March 15 this year. March 17 will remain an official Irish day
off work and the Dublin parade will go on as scheduled.
Had Ireland's bishops shown the same insistence as some of their American
counterparts, Cronin said, their comments almost certainly would have been
ignored.
''It'd be like the (American) bishops arguing to move Super Bowl Sunday,'' he
said.
The conflict is uncomfortable for some Irish-American Catholics. Franklin
County Treasurer Ed Leonard bowed out of the Columbus parade but hopes a
resolution might be reached.
''We wouldn't be celebrating St. Patrick's Day,'' he said, ''were it not for the
religious component of it.''
Associated Press writers Clare Trapasso in New York City and
Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.
On the Net:
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:
http://www.nccbuscc.org/
Shamrock Club of
Columbus:
http://www.shamrockclubofcolumbus.com/
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