Palm Sunday and the Wearing O' the Green

Rocco covered this yesterday while the Boston Globe article here gives the local scoop. It's a shame that the parade organizers fail, altogether, to understand the context that Holy Week provides for the lives of Christians and especially for Catholic Christians who honor St. Patrick among the canon of saints. For most, the daily business of work, school and family life go on as usual in this sacred time but it is certainly to be hoped that Holy Week might color our activities in its own shades of prayer, fasting, ritual and custom. That something as movable as the parade will stubbornly march down the streets of cities as believers are fresh from their hearing the gospel of Christ's suffering and death is indeed regrettable. Before the words of the Passion stop echoing in the hearts of believers they will be drowned out by sounds of marching bands and parties.

In our own parish we discovered a while ago that we had scheduled a St. Patrick's Day dinner for Saturday, March 15 - right after the first Mass of Palm Sunday. We have rescheduled that dinner for the week before out of respect for calendar of our prayer.

St. Pat's Day vs. Holy Week
by John C. Drake, Globe Staff
February 21, 2008

The 2008 calendar presents a rare clash between St. Patrick's Day and Holy Week, with parade organizers across the country and in some Massachusetts communities yielding to the Catholic Church.

But the fiercely independent South Boston organizers of one of the nation's largest St. Patrick's Day parades say the parade will roll on during the afternoon of March 16, Palm Sunday.

Chicago and Philadelphia have pushed their parades up to March 9, a week ahead of the start of Holy Week, which begins on Palm Sunday and ends a week later with Easter celebrations.

Organizers in Worcester and Holyoke also preferred not to hand Catholics a conflict, scheduling their parades for March 9 and March 29, respectively.

But not so in Boston.

"We aren't scared to do things that aren't fitting to, say, 'peace on earth' and all that," said John "Wacko" Hurley, who organizes the parade for the Allied War Veterans of South Boston. "We all want peace, but our obligation is supporting the armed forces. So, nope, we don't have any problems with that."

...

This is the first year since 1940 that St. Patrick's Day will fall during Holy Week, and it won't happen again until 2160.

Because of Holy Week observances, no Mass in honor of St. Patrick can be held on Monday, March 17, according to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. But Roman Catholic leaders in Savannah, Ga., and Columbus, Ohio, have urged their cities to keep parades and festivals out of Holy Week altogether.

Savannah moved its festival to Friday, March 14. Columbus parade organizers are sticking with their celebration on Monday, March 17.

Asked about the timing, the Archdiocese of Boston released a statement that kept the focus on the religious observances, avoiding the nettlesome issue.

"The archdiocese invites all of the faithful to participate in the liturgical celebrations of Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday on Sunday, March 16, and leading up to and including the Easter Sunday celebration," said Terrence C. Donilon, the archdiocesan spokesman.

Boston's parade has been surrounded by controversy before. Parade organizers won a unanimous US Supreme Court ruling in 1995 that allowed it to exclude an Irish-American gay and lesbian group from marching. Mayor Thomas M. Menino refuses to march in the parade because of the organizers' exclusion of the gay group.

Through a spokeswoman, Menino, who is Catholic, declined to comment on the parade's timing.

State Representative Brian Wallace said that since the parade is the centerpiece of what has become a month -long celebration, it is too late to consider changing the date.

"It would just throw everything completely off," Wallace said.

Not that Hurley would have given it any thought.

"We won't be dictated to," Hurley said.