BANGOR (AP) – Maine’s Roman Catholics will be allowed to eat meat on Friday, St. Patrick’s Day, but they will have to abstain from meat for another day as a trade-off, Bishop Richard Malone said.

The bishop says he eased the no-meat rule on Friday so St. Patrick’s Day can be looked at as a festive day rather than one of penance.

“People can celebrate as long as it’s moral and legal, but I hope they would use the day for prayer as well,” Malone said Sunday during a visit to St. John Catholic Church in Bangor.

If they wish to enjoy a traditional meal of corned beef or another type of meat on Friday, Catholics will have to do without meat this Wednesday instead, the bishop said.

St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Friday this year during Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and prayer leading up to Easter. Catholics age 14 and older are required to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent.

The dispensation on St. Patrick’s Day has become routine in cities like Boston and Chicago, and Malone’s predecessor, Bishop Joseph Gerry, issued similar rulings in Maine when the observance fell on Friday.

Peter Geaghan, who owns an Irish pub in Bangor that has borne his family’s name for decades, welcomed Malone’s decision.

“God bless him,” said Geaghan, who during the weekend started cooking more than 120 pounds of corned beef he plans to serve with potatoes and cabbage on Friday.

Geaghan also expects to serve sliced corned beef sandwiches on that day.

For Malone, St. Patrick’s Day will be another working day. The spiritual head of Maine’s 230,000 Roman Catholics plans to celebrate Mass in honor of St. Patrick, who is a secondary patron saint of the diocese along with John the Baptist.