Appendix E: Catholic Admissions

Primary Catholic testimony showing that Sunday observance rests on church authority, not on a command from Scripture.

The sharpest witness in the Sabbath controversy comes from the Roman Catholic Church itself. Catholic leaders have never hidden that the Sabbath was changed to Sunday by ecclesiastical decree centuries after the apostles. The excerpts below span newspapers, catechisms, devotional guides, and apologetic works. Together they form a direct admission that Sunday sacredness stands on tradition rather than on the Bible.

What the Roman Catholic Church States Openly

• The seventh day remains the biblical Sabbath; the change to Sunday was the church's act.
• Sunday keeping is presented as a sign of Catholic authority over Scripture and tradition.
• Protestants who keep Sunday while claiming "Bible only" are challenged to return to the fourth commandment.

Representative Admissions

"The Catholic Church… by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday."

Catholic Mirror, "The Christian Sabbath," Sept. 2, 1893.

"You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday."

James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers (1917), 72.

"Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act… And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters."

H. F. Thomas, chancellor for Cardinal Gibbons, letter dated Nov. 11, 1895.

"The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the Catholic Church."

Monsignor Louis Gaston de Ségur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today (1868), 213.

"In observing Sunday, [Protestants] are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the Church, the pope."

Our Sunday Visitor, Feb. 5, 1950.

Why These Admissions Matter

Rome concedes that Scripture never authorizes Sunday sacredness; the rationale is tradition backed by ecclesiastical power. The fourth commandment, by contrast, rests on God's own voice and handwriting. The issue therefore becomes allegiance. Keeping the Sabbath affirms God's authority and His sign of sanctification (Ezekiel 20:12, 20). Accepting Sunday because "the church changed it" affirms human authority above the Word. The Catholic admissions remove any pretense that both days rest on equal biblical footing.

The Same Pattern: Marian Doctrine

The Sabbath change was not the Roman Catholic Church's only exercise of claimed authority over Scripture. In 1854, Pope Pius IX declared the Immaculate Conception of Mary as binding dogma. Rome's own sources acknowledge the doctrine lacks direct biblical proof.Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, December 8, 1854. Full text available at: https://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_pi09id.htm.

"No direct or categorical and stringent proof of the dogma can be brought forward from Scripture."

Catholic Encyclopedia, "Immaculate Conception"Catholic Encyclopedia, "Immaculate Conception." Available at: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07674d.htm.

"It is therefore in divine tradition, the unwritten word of God, that we must seek the basic and unquestionable source of the dogma."

Catholic Culture, "Historical Development of the Dogma"Catholic Culture, "Historical Development of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception." Available at: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=9070.

Sixteen years later, Vatican I (1870) formally defined papal infallibility, retroactively legitimizing such declarations. The pattern is consistent: tradition and papal authority override what Scripture alone supports. If the Roman Catholic Church can define Mary's sinlessness as binding doctrine without scriptural proof, they can define Sunday sacredness the same way.

Source Notes

1. Catholic Mirror, "The Christian Sabbath," serialized Sept. 2–23, 1893; reprinted in The Christian Sabbath Explained.
2. James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers, 72nd ed. (Baltimore: Murphy & Co., 1917), 72.
3. H. F. Thomas letter to a Protestant inquirer, Nov. 11, 1895; cited in The Catholic Extension Magazine, Aug. 1906, 213.
4. Monsignor Louis G. de Ségur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today (Boston: Patrick Donahoe, 1868), 213.
5. Our Sunday Visitor, Feb. 5, 1950, p. 3.
6. Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, December 8, 1854. Available at: https://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_pi09id.htm.
7. Catholic Encyclopedia, "Immaculate Conception." Available at: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07674d.htm.
8. Catholic Culture, "Historical Development of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception." Available at: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=9070.