Sabbath Historical Highlights

But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn't it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes, of course, it is inconsistent; but this change was made about fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born, and by that time the custom was universally observed.

They have continued the custom, even though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text in the Bible. That observance remains as a reminder of the Mother Church from which the non-Catholic sects broke away - like a boy running away from home but still carrying in his pocket a picture of his mother or a lock of her hair.

- The Faith of Millions, John A O’Brian, p. 473

What Bible Authority is there for changing the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week? Who gave the Pope the authority to change a command of God?

If the Bible is the only guide for the Christian, then the Seventh Day Adventist is right in observing the Saturday with the Jew. But Catholics learn what to believe and do from the divine, infallible authority established by Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church, which in Apostolic times made Sunday the day of rest to honor our Lord's resurrection on that day, and to mark off clearly the Jew from the Christian. St. Justin Martyr (Apol., c. 67) speaks of the early Christians meeting for the holy sacrifice of the Mass on Sunday.

Is it not strange that those who make the Bible their only teacher should inconsistently follow in this matter the tradition of the church?

The Sunday assembly is the privileged place of unity: it is the setting for the celebration of the sacramentum unitatis which profoundly marks the church as a people gathered "by" and "in" the unity of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Q. What is the blessed bread?
A. The blessed bread is a sanctified bread that is distributed at Sunday Mass, as a mark of the union that ought to exist among all Christians.

Roman Catholic Church, Sunday Mass observance become a mark of a practicing Catholic.

Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles. . . From beginning to 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, The Leading Catholic Paper of Australia, August 25th, 1900

If the Bible is the only guide for the Christian, then the Seventh Day Adventist is right in observing the Saturday with the Jew.

- Priest Bertrand Conway, The Question-Box Answers, 1909

Dear Sir,

Your letter was forwarded here where I now reside. I have offered & still offer $1,000. to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound under grievous sin, to keep Sunday holy.

2. It was the Catholic church that made the law obliging us to Keep Sunday holy. This law was made long after the Bible was written; hence said law is not in the Bible.

Pray & Study. I shall always be glad to help you as long as you honestly seek the truth.

Respectfully,
T. Enright CssR

- Thomas Enright, Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris, President, Redemptorist College, Kansas City Missouri, 1909

Be sure of it, your Seventh Day Adventist friends are telling you the truth, when they say that it was the Catholic Church which changed the day of worship from the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday. If protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath day. In keeping the Sunday they are following a law of the Catholic Church.

During the first three centuries practice and tradition had consecrated the Sunday to the worship of God. In the year 300, the Council of Elvira[*] made the law a definite one." *[Canon 21. If anyone who lives in the city does not attend church services for three Sundays, let that person be expelled for a brief time in order to make the reproach public.

- Albert Smith, February 10th, 1920

We have in the authoritative voice of the Church the voice of Christ Himself. The Church is above the Bible. And this transference of Sabbath observance from Saturday to Sunday is proof positive of that fact.

- The Catholic Record, Saturday, September 1, 1923

Seventh Day Adventists are right, however, in accusing other Protestants of inconsistency who speak of any obligation of Sunday observance whilst rejecting the authority of the Catholic Church.

- The Australian Catholic Truth Society Record, February 10th 1950 (No. 446)

People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become 7th Day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy.

- Leo Broderick, Saint Catherine Sentinel, Algonac Michigan, May 21st, 1995