St. Paddy's Day, Corned Beef, and Fridays in Lent

So DS#1 was driving me to BART again today and he had the radio on to one of his stations. And one of the morning DJ crew was reading news clips. One that caught the attention of the one of the DJ's was this: several bishops have given dispensation so that The Faithful can have meat on St. Patrick's Day, which happens to fall on a Friday this year.

DJ#2 immediately gets on his high horse, ranting about how he doesn't understand how (meaning the bishops, I presume) can just go around giving dispensations. "I mean, either the Bible says or it doesn't say..." And that's when I lost track of the conversation.

I should be used to the woeful ignorance of morning DJ's in particular and the media in general about the rules of meatless Fridays for Catholics. I've tried to explain it to Hubs, who is not Catholic. And he still doesn't get it.

But, still, to bring the Bible into it?

Note to dimwitted DJ: St. Patrick was born several hundred years after the Bible was written. So it would be pretty difficult to find a passage that explicitly states that one may not eat meat on Fridays during Lent--which hadn't been invented yet-- except when the feast of a saint--who has yet to be born--falls on a Friday. Then it's okay to eat corned beef and cabbage (did the Jews have corned beef yet? Or cabbage?)

Sheesh.

I'm sure The Curt Jester could do something with this idea, though...