Roman Catholic Confession About Saturday and Sunday

8/8/2019 Roman Catholic Confession About Saturday and Sunday

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ROMAN CATHOLIC

CONFESSION ABOUT

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY

Who Are We Reverencing,

Bowing and PayingHomage to by Keeping

Sunday Holy?

http://vimeo.com/14483688

Plain Statements


2/22

"Is not every Christian obliged to sanctifySunday and to abstain on that day from

unnecessary servile work? Is not theobservance of this law among the most

prominent of our sacred duties? But youmay read the Bible from Genesis to

Revelation, and you will not find a singleline authorizing the sanctification of

Sunday. The Scriptures enforce thereligious observance of Saturday, a day

which we never sanctify."

James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of OurFathers (1917 edition), p. 72-73 (16th Edition, p

111; 88th Edition, p. 89).

"For example, nowhere in the Bible dowe find that Christ or the Apostles

ordered that the Sabbath bechanged from Saturday to Sunday.


3/22

We have the commandment of God given toMoses to keep holy the Sabbath day, that is

the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Todaymost Christians keep Sunday because it hasbeen revealed to us by the [Roman Catholic]

church outside the Bible." CatholicVirginian, October 3, 1947, p. 9, article "ToTell You the Truth."

Who Made Sunday Holy?"Written by the finger of God on two tables

of stone, this Divine code (tencommandments) was received from the

Almighty by Moses amid the thunders ofMount Sinai...Christ resumed these

Commandments in the double precept ofcharity--love of God and of the neighbour;

He proclaimed them as binding under theNew Law in Matthew 19 and in the Sermon on

the Mount (Matthew 5)....The (Catholic)Church, on the other hand, after changingthe day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, orseventh day of the week, to the first, madethe Third Commandment refer to Sunday asthe day to be kept holy as the Lord's Day....


4/22

He (God) claims one day out of the seven as amemorial to Himself, and this must be kept

holy..."The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4, "The Ten

Commandments", 1908 edition by Robert

Appleton Company; and 1999 On-line editionby Kevin Knight, Imprimatur, John M.

Farley, Archbishop of New York.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04153a.htm

"Question: How prove you that the churchhad power to command feasts andholydays?

"Answer: By the very act of changing theSabbath into Sunday, which Protestants

allow of; and therefore they fondlycontradict themselves by keeping Sundaystrictly, and breaking most other feasts

commanded by the same church."Question: Have you any other way ofproving that the church has power to

institute festivals of precept?


5/22

"Answer: Had she not such power, she could nota done that in which all modern religionists

agree with her; -she could not havesubstituted the observance of Sunday the

first day of the week, for the observance ofSaturday the seventh day of the week, achange for which there is no Scriptural

authority.

Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism On theObedience Due to the Church, 3rd edition,

Chapter 2, p. 174 (Imprimatur, John Cardinal

McCloskey, Archbishop of New York)."Perhaps the boldest thing, the most

revolutionary change the Church ever did,happened in the first century. The holy day,the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to

Sunday. The day of the Lord was chosen, notfrom any direction noted in the Scriptures,

but from the Church's sense of its ownpower....People who think that the Scripturesshould be the sole authority, should

logically...keep Saturday holy." St. CatherineChurch Sentinel, Algonac, Michigan, May 21,

1995.


6/22

"Nowhere in the Bible is it stated thatworship should be changed from Saturday

to Sunday....Now the Church...instituted, byGod's authority, Sunday as the day of

worship. This same Church, by the same

divine authority, taught the doctrine ofPurgatory long before the Bible wasmade. We have, therefore, the same

authority for Purgatory as we have forSunday."Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics

Are Asked About, 1927 edition, p. 136.

"Question - Which is the Sabbath day?"Answer - Saturday is the Sabbath day."Question - Why do we observe Sunday

instead of Saturday?"Answer - We observe Sunday instead of

Saturday because the Catholic Church, in

the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 364),transferred the solemnity from Saturday

to Sunday." Peter Geiermann, C.S.S.R., TheConvert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine,

p. 50, 3rd edition, 1957.


7/22

"Is Saturday the seventh day according to theBible and the Ten Commandments? I answer

yes. Is Sunday the first day of the week anddid the Church change the seventh day -Saturday - for Sunday, the first day? I

answer yes. Did Christ change the day'? Ianswer no! "Faithfully yours,

J. Card. Gibbons." James Cardinal Gibbons,Archbishop of Baltimore, Md. (1877-1921), in a

signed letter. "Q.- How prove you that theChurch hath power to command feasts and

holy days?

"A.- By the very act of changing Sabbath intoSunday which Protestants allow of; andtherefore they fondly contradictthemselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, andbreaking most other feasts commanded by thesame Church. "Q.-How prove you that? "A.-Because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledgethe Church's power to ordain feasts, and tocommand them under sin: and by not keepingthe rest by her commanded, they again deny,in fact, the same power." An Abridgment of theChristian Doctrine, composed by HenryTuberville, p. 58.


8/22

"Some theologians have held that Godlikewise directly determined the Sundayas the day of worship in the New Law, thatHe Himself has explicitly substituted the

Sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory isnow entirely abandoned. It is now

commonly held that God simply gave HisChurch the power to set aside whateverday or days she would deem suitable as

Holy Days. The Church chose Sunday, thefirst day of the week, and in the course oftime added other days as holy days." John

Laux, A Course in Religion for Catholic HighSchools and Academies, 1936 edition, vol. 1, p.

51."Question. What warrant have you for

keeping Sunday preferably to the ancientsabbath which was Saturday?"Answer. We have for it the authority of the

Catholic church and apostolic tradition.


9/22

The Scripture commands us to hear thechurch (St.Matt.18:17; St. Luke 10:16), and to

hold fast the traditions of the apostles. 2Thess 2:15. But the Scripture does not in

particular mention this change of thesabbath. "St John speaks of the Lord's day

(Rev 1:10) but he does not tell us what day ofthe week that was, much less does he tellus what day was to take the place of theSabbath ordained in the commandments.St.Luke speaks of the disciples meeting

together to break bread on the first dayof the week. Acts 20:7. And St. paul (1 Cor.16:2)

orders that on the first day of the weekthe Corinthians should lay in store whatthey designated to bestow in charity on

the faithful in Judea: but neither the oneor the other tells us that this first day of

the week was to be henceforth a day ofworship, and the Christian Sabbath; so thattruly the best authority we have for this

ancient custom is the testimony of thechurch.


10/22

And therefore those who pretend to be

such religious observers of Sunday, whilstthey take no notice of other festivalsordained by the same church authority,

show that they act more by humor, than byreligion; since Sundays and holidays allstand upon the same foundation, namelythe ordinance of the church." Catholic

Christian Instructed, 17th edition, p. 272-273.

"Protestantism, in discarding the authorityof the (Roman catholic) Church, has no goodreasons for its Sunday theory, and ought

logically to keep Saturday as the Sabbath."

John Gilmary Shea, American CatholicQuarterly Review, January, 1883."The Catholic church for over one

thousand years before the existence of aProtestant, by virtue of her divine mission,

changed the day from Saturday to

Sunday....


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The Protestant World at its birth found theChristian Sabbath too strongly

entrenched to run counter to itsexistence; it was therefore placed under

the necessity of acquiescing in the

arrangement, thus implying the (Catholic)Church's right to change the day, for overthree hundred years. The ChristianSabbath is therefore to this day, the

acknowledged offspring of the CatholicChurch as spouse of the Holy Ghost,

without a word of remonstrance from the

Protestant World." James Cardinal Gibbonsin the Catholic Mirror, September 23, 1983.Whose Day of Worship is Sunday?

"They [the Protestants] deem it their dutyto keep the Sunday holy. Why? Because theCatholic Church tells them to do so. Theyhave no other reason....The observance ofSunday thus comes to be an ecclesiasticallaw entirely distinct from the divine law

of Sabbath observance....


12/22

The author of the Sunday law...is theCatholic Church." Ecclesiastical Review,February, 1914. "The Sunday...is purely a

creation of the Catholic Church." American

Catholic Quarterly Review, January, 1883."Sunday...is the law of the Catholic Churchalone..."American Sentinel (Catholic), June,

1893."Sunday is a Catholic institution and its

claimto observance can be defended only

on Catholic principles....From

beginning toend of Scripture there is not a singlepassage that warrants the transfer of

weekly public worship fromthe last day ofthe week to the first." Catholic Press,

Sydney, Australia,August, 1900."It is well to remind the Presbyterians,

Baptists, Methodists, and all otherChristians, that the Bible does not supportthemanywhere in their observance of

Sunday.


13/22

Sunday is an institution of the RomanCatholic Church, and those who observe

the day observe a commandment of theCatholic Church." Priest Brady, in an

address reported in The News, Elizabeth,

New Jersey, March 18, 1903.Conclusion, and the Great Challenge!

"The Church changed the observance of theSabbath to Sunday by right of the divine,infallible authority given to her by herfounder, Jesus Christ. The Protestant

claiming the Bible to be the only guide offaith, has no warrant for observingSunday."The Catholic Universe Bulletin,August 14, 1942, p. 4. "Sunday is founded, notof scripture, but on tradition, and isdistinctly a Catholic institution. As thereis no scripture for the transfer of the day

of rest from the last to the first day ofthe week, Protestants ought to keep theirSabbath on Saturday and thus leaveCatholics in full possession of Sunday."Catholic Record, September 17, 1893.


14/22

"Regarding the change from theobservance of the Jewish Sabbath to theChristian Sunday, I wish to draw yourattention to the facts: "1) ThatProtestants, who accept the Bible as the

only rule of faith and religion, should byall means go back to the observance of theSabbath. The fact that they do not, but onthe contrary observe the Sunday,stultifies them in the eyes of everythinking man. "2) We Catholics do not acceptthe Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides

the Bible we have the living Church, theauthority of the Church, as a rule to guideus. We say, this Church, Instituted byChrist to teach and guide man throughlife, has the right to change theceremonial laws of the Old Testament andhence, we accept her change of the Sabbath

to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Churchmade this change, made this law, as she mademany other laws, for instance, the Fridayabstinence, the unmarried priesthood, thelaws concerning mixed marriages,


15/22

the regulation of Catholic marriages and athousand other laws....

"It is always somewhat laughable, to seethe Protestant churches, in pulpit and

legislation, demand the observance ofSunday, of which there is nothing in theirBible." Peter R. Kraemer, Catholic Church

Extension Magazine, USA (1975),Chicago,Illinois, "Under the blessing of the Pope

Pius XI"I am going to propose a very plain andserious question to those who follow theBible and the Bible only to give their mostearnest attention. It is this: Why dont youkeep holy the Sabbath day?... "The commandof the Almighty God stands clearlywritten in the Bible in these words:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep itholy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do allthy work; but the seventh day is theSabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thoushalt not do any work. Exodus 20:8-10....


16/22

"You will answer me, perhaps, that you dokeep the Sabbath; for that you abstain

from all worldly business and diligentlygo to church, and say your prayers, and

read your Bible at home every Sunday ofyour lives...."But Sunday is not the Sabbathday. Sunday is the first day of the week:the Sabbath day is the seventh day of the

week. Almighty God did not give acommandment that men should keep holy

one day in seven; but He named His own day,

and said distinctly: Thou shalt keep holythe seventh day; and He assigned a reason

for choosing this day rather than anyother - a reason which belongs only to the

seventh day of the week, and cannot beapplied to the rest. He says, For in six days

the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea

and all that in them is, and rested on theseventh day: wherefore the Lord blessedthe Sabbath day and hallowed it, Exodus

20:11, Genesis 2:1-3.


17/22

Almighty God ordered that all men shouldrest from their labor on the seventh day,because He too had rested on that day: Hedid not rest on Sunday, but onSaturday. On Sunday, which is the first day

of the week, He began the work of creation;He did not finish it. It was on Saturdaythat He ended His work which he had made:and God blessed the seventh day, andsanctified it: because that in it He hadrested from all His work which Godcreated and made. Genesis 2:2-3....

"Nothing can be more plain and easy tounderstand than all this; there is nobodywho attempts to deny it. It isacknowledged by everybody that the daywhich Almighty God appointed to be keptholy was Saturday, not Sunday. Why doyou then keep holy the Sunday and not

Saturday? "You will tell me that Saturdaywas the Jewish Sabbath, but that theChristian Sabbath has been changed toSunday. Changed! But by whom? Who has theauthority to change an expresscommandment of Almighty God?


18/22

When God has spoken and said, Thou shaltkeep holy the seventh day, who shall dareto say, Nay, thou mayest work and do allmanner of worldly business on the seventhday: but thou shalt keep holy the first day

in its stead? This is a most importantquestion, which I know not how youanswer...."You are a Protestant, and youprofess to go by the Bible and the Bibleonly; and yet, in so important a manner asthe observance of one day in seven as theholy day, you go against the plain letter

of the Bible, and put another day in theplace of that day which the Bible hascommanded. The command to keep holy theseventh day is one of the TenCommandments; you believe that the othernine are still binding. Who gave youauthority to tamper with the fourth? If

you are consistent with your ownprinciples, if you really follow the Bible,and the Bible only you ought to be able toproduce some portion of the New Testamentin which this fourth commandment isexpressly altered."


19/22

Excerpts from "Why Dont You Keep Holythe Sabbath Day?", pages 3-15 in The CliftonTract, vol.4, published by the RomanCatholic Church about 1869."The arguments...are firmly grounded on

the word of God, and having been closelystudied with the Bible in hand, leave noescape for the conscientious Protestantexcept the abandonment of Sunday worshipand the return to Saturday, commanded bytheir teacher, the Bible, or, unwilling toabandon the tradition of the Catholic

Church, which enjoins the keeping ofSunday, and which they have accepted indirect opposition to their teacher, theBible, consistently accept her (theCatholic Church) in all herteachings. Reason and common sensedemand the acceptance of one or the other

of these alternatives: eitherProtestantism and the keeping holy ofSaturday, or Catholicism and the keepingholy of Sunday. Compromise is impossible."James Cardinal Gibbons, in Catholic Mirror,December 23, 1893.


20/22

Most Christians assume that Sunday is thebiblically approved day of worship. TheCatholic Church protests that ittransferred Christian worship from thebiblical Sabbath (Saturday) to Sunday, and

that to try to argue that the change wasmade in the Bible is both dishonest and adenial of Catholic authority. IfProtestantism wants to base its teachingsonly on the Bible, it should worship onSaturday.

Romes Challenge

www.immaculateheart.com/maryonline Dec2003

Is not every Christian obliged to sanctifySunday and to abstain on that day from

unnecessary servile work? Is not theobservance of this law among the most

prominent of our sacred duties? But youmay read the Bible from Genesis to

Revelation, and you will not find a singleline authorizing the sanctification of

Sunday. The Scriptures enforce thereligious observance of Saturday, a day

which we never sanctify.


21/22

James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faithof OurFathers (1917 edition), p. 72-73 (16thEdition, p111; 88thEdition, p. 89).Protestantism, in discarding theauthority of the (Roman Catholic) Church,

has no good reasons for its Sunday theory,and oughtlogically to keep Saturday asthe Sabbath. John Gilmary Shea, AmericanCatholicQuarterly Review, January 1883. The Catholic churchfor over one thousand

years before the existence of a Protestant,by virtue of her divine mission, changed the

day from Saturday to Sunday...TheProtestantWorld at its birthfound theChristian Sabbathtoo strongly entrenchedto run counter to its existence; itwastherefore placed under the necessity ofacquiescing in the arrangement, thusimplying the (Catholic) Churchs righttochange the day, for over three hundred

years. The Christian Sabbath is therefore tothis day, the acknowledged offspring of theCatholic Churchas spouse of the Holy Ghost,withouta word of remonstrance from theProtestantWorld. James Cardinal Gibbons inthe Catholic Mirror, September 23, 1983.


22/22

Perhaps the boldest thing, themost revolutionary change theChurch ever did, happened in the

first century. The holy day, theSabbath, was changed from

Saturday to Sunday. The day ofthe Lord was chosen, not from

any direction noted in the

Scriptures, but from the(Catholic) Churchs sense of itsown power...People who thinkthat the Scriptures should be

the sole authority, should

logically become 7th DayAdventists, and keep Saturdayholy. St. Catherine Church

Sentinel, Algonac, Michigan, May21, 1995.

Documents

Roman Catholic Confession About Saturday and Sunday