“Ques.—Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?
“Ans.—Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her,—she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.”—“A Doctrinal Catechism,” by Rev. Stephen Keenan, page 174.
“The Catholic Church of its own infallible authority created Sunday a holy day to take the place of the Sabbath of the old law.”—Kansas City Catholic, Feb. 9, 1893.
“The Catholic Church, ... by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.”—Catholic Mirror, official organ of Cardinal Gibbons, Sept. 23, 1893.
“Ques.—Which is the Sabbath day?
“Ans.—Saturday is the Sabbath day.
“Ques.—Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
“Ans.—We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (a.d. 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”—“The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine,” by Rev. Peter Geiermann, C. SS. R., page 50, third edition, 1913, a work which received the “apostolic blessing” of Pope Pius X, Jan. 25, 1910.
What was done at the Council of Laodicea was but one of the steps by which the change of the Sabbath was effected. See under questions 17-21. The date usually given for this council is 364 a.d.
12. Do Catholic authorities acknowledge that there is no command in the Bible for the sanctification of Sunday?