— In Their Own Words
Rome and the Sabbath
Roman Catholic Statements on the Change of the Sabbath
Introduction to Rome and the Sabbath
The majority of Christians today worship on Sunday, the first day of the week. Yet almost no one questions how Sunday came to be the day of worship. The Bible records that Jesus worshiped on the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, “as was His custom” (Luke 4:16). The early Christians at Antioch also worshiped on the Sabbath of Creation, both Jews and Gentiles together in the synagogue (Acts 13:40-44).
What most Christians do not realize is that the Roman Catholic papacy has officially claimed to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday as its day of worship and the mark of its authority, a tradition that has been passed down to Protestants. Here are a few statements by Roman Catholics themselves, confirming that Sunday is not only the mark of Rome’s authority, but a day that honors Roman Catholic tradition above the Bible.
There is no Scriptural basis for Sunday
1. “Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday… Now the Church… instituted, by God’s authority, Sunday as the day of worship. This same Church, by the same divine authority, taught the doctrine of Purgatory long before the Bible was made. We have, therefore, the same authority for Purgatory as we have for Sunday.”
Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About, 1927, p. 136.
2. “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.”
James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers, 1917 edition, pp. 72-73.
3. “Some theologians have held that God… has explicitly substituted the Sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is now entirely abandoned. It is now commonly held that God simply gave His Church the power to set aside whatever day or days she would deem suitable as Holy Days. The Church chose Sunday.”
John Laux, A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies, 1936, vol. 1, p. 51.
4. “Had she not such power… she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day of the week, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.”
Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, 3rd edition, p. 174.
The Church claims it made the change, by its own authority
5. “Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Answer: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”
Peter Geiermann, The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, p. 50.
6. “Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claim to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles… From the beginning to the end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first.”
Catholic Press (Sydney, Australia), August 1900.
7. “Sunday is founded, not on Scripture, but on tradition, and is distinctly a Catholic institution. As there is no Scripture for the transfer of the day of rest from the last to the first day of the week, Protestants ought to keep their Sabbath on Saturday and thus leave Catholics in full possession of Sunday.”
Catholic Record (London, Ontario), September 17, 1893.
The challenge to Protestants
8. “It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church.”
Priest Brady, address at Elizabeth, New Jersey, reported in The News, March 18, 1903.
9. “Protestants… accept Sunday rather than Saturday as the day for public worship after the Catholic Church made the change… In observing the Sunday, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the Church, the Pope.”
Our Sunday Visitor, February 15, 1950.
10. “Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping of Sunday. Compromise is impossible.”
The Catholic Mirror (Baltimore), December 23, 1893.
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