040317 Church Nixes Good Friday Fenway Hot Dogs

Boston, MA - Opening Day ticket holders at Boston's Fenway Park this year who are Catholic face a dilemma: the Boston Archdiocese said since the afternoon game against the Toronto Blue Jays falls on Good Friday, they must refrain from eating meat, including hot dogs, sausages and pepperoni pizza.

"We're already getting all kinds of requests for dispensation to eat meat," said the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, a spokesman for the archdiocese. However Coyne said that after a meeting to discuss the requests, Boston church leaders decided a baseball game was too weak an excuse to duck the no-meat rule.

"I would hope it was just an oversight when they were doing the schedule," Coyne told the Boston Herald. "I think it's very insensitive to the huge number of people who are Christians and fans."

In 1995 and 2000, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, then the head of the archdiocese, allowed local Catholics to eat meat when St. Patrick's Day fell on a Friday during Lent.

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