01:00 AM EST on Saturday, March 11, 2006

Dispensation for meat on Friday

The Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, bishop of Providence, has dispensed Catholics of the Diocese of Providence from the Lenten obligation to abstain from meat on Friday, which is St. Patrick's Day.

Members of the Church are reminded that in making use of this dispensation, they should practice an alternate act of penance, charity or prayer to maintain the spirit of the Holy Season of Lent.

Byzantine hymns of Lent

The Boston Byzantine choir, under the direction of Charles R. Marge, will perform Byzantine hymns of Great Lent and Holy Week in a recital of Eastern Orthodox Sacred Chant in English tonight at 7 at Brown University's Manning Chapel, 10 Prospect St., Providence.

The Da Vinci Code deciphered

The Rev. Robert P. Perron, pastor of All Saints Parish in Woonsocket, will present a two-session expose concerning questions which have surfaced in light of the best-selling novel and soon-to-be-released film The Da Vinci Code.

The sessions will be held tomorrow and next Sunday, March 19, at 6:30 p.m. in the All Saints Rectory basement conference room, 323 Rathbun St., Woonsocket.

Abbot Keeting at Brown

Abbot Thomas Keating, a founder of the Centering Prayer Movement and Contemplative Outreach, will present the Second Annual Mary Interandi Lecutre on Contemplative Studies at Brown University Monday at 8 p.m. at the 120 List Art Building, 64 College St., Providence. The free lecture is titled "Prater in Secret." The abbot entered the Cistercian order in Cumberland in 1944 and developed the method while superior of St. Benedict's Monastery in Colorado.

The Dominicans in the East

The Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies of Providence College's Office of Mission and Ministry will sponsor its first St. Joseph lecture Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in the Campus Ministry Center/St. Dominic Chapel on the PC campus.

The Rev. John Vidmar, O.P., associate professor of theology at PC and provincial archivist, will discuss "The Dominicans in the Eastern United States: Reflections on the 200th Aniversary of the Province of St. Joseph."

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, call (401) 865-1210.

'Beyond the Mass' at La Salette

The Rev. Vic Chaupetta, M.S., will discuss "Beyond the Mass" Thursday at 7:15 p.m. as the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro celebrates the Year of the Eucharist. All are welcome. For more information, call (508) 222-5410 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. or visit http://www.lasalette-shrine.org.

U2 Eucharist Service

A special one-hour U2 Eucharist Service will be celebrated at Grace Church, 175 Mathewson St., Providence, Friday at 7 p.m. The music of U2, the rock bank from Ireland, will add a contemporary dynamic to the traditional sacred service in the classic beauty and dignity of Grace Church on St. Patrick's Day as a way to honor the homeland of U2 and the revered Saint of Ireland.

On Jewish forgiveness

As a young man imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Simon Wiesenthal was taken one day to a hospital at the request of a mortally wounded Nazi soldier who was tormented by the crimes in which he had participated and looking to confess to -- and if possible, receive absolution from -- a Jew.

Twenty-five years after the Holocaust, Wiesenthal asked leading intellectuals what they would have done in his place.

Sydney Pringle, director of communications for the New York office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, will discuss Wiesenthal's The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness Thursday at 7 p.m. at the kickoff event for Jewish Read Across Rhode Island at Borders Books & Music, 190 Hillside Rd., Cranston.