Roman Catholic clergy in Columbus are asking Irish worshippers to refrain from celebrating St. Patrick's Day on March 17 this year.Columbus Bishop Frederick Campbell has asked local pastors to celebrate the patron saint a week early instead.
For the first time in 67 years, the holiday falls during the week before Easter, called Holy Week and considered the most sacred week on the Christian calendar.
"Wherever Holy Week happens to fall, any other feast days during that week are set aside," said Deacon Tom Berg Jr., vice chancellor of the Columbus Diocese.
The city's Shamrock Club said the downtown parade and Irish Family Reunion at Veterans Memorial will go on as planned. But the local division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a national Irish Catholic group, will not participate.
The Shamrock Club declined to cancel the event because the date is mandated by its bylaws. President Mark Dempsey, a Catholic, said many other cities have not canceled their parades.
"I understand this being Holy Week, but I don't know anyone else who shuts down during Holy Week," Dempsey said.
No Mass will be celebrated prior to the parade, Berg said.
The controversy has created a rift among Irish Catholics, said Monsignor John K. Cody, who serves as chaplain of both groups. Cody advised the Shamrock Club to move the parade, saying St. Patrick wouldn't "want to see people whooping it up in his honor during the most sacred week of the year."
Roman Catholic officials in Ireland, the country where the holiday originated, decided in July to shift its 2008 feast day for the national saint to March 15 — the first time the date has been changed since 1940.
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