THE ROMAN CHURCH'S ADMISSION OF CHANGING THE SABBATH

Q. What is the Third Commandment? ( Remember they renumbered! )
A. The third Commandment is: Remember thour keep holy the Sabbath day.

Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.

Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday."
[ The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, 1951 printing, page 50. ]

Q. How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and holy days?
A. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday which Protestants allow of; and therefore THEY FONDLY CONTRADICT THEMSELVES, BY KEEPING SUNDAY STRICTLY, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church."

[ Henry Tubervill, An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, 1833, page 58. ]

"You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and the Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day in seven as a holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place of the day which the Bible has commanded. The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the ten commandments; you believe that the other nine are still binding: who gave you authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with your own principles, if you really follow the Bible and the Bible only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly altered." [ Library of Christian Doctrine. Why Don't You Keep Holy the Sabbath Day? page 5. ]

    Thomaston, Georgia
    May 22, 1934

    Pop Pius XI
    Rome, Italy

    Dear Sir;
    Is the accusation true, that Protestants accuse you of?  They say you
    changed the Seventh Day Sabbath to the, so-called, Christian Sunday:
    Identical with the First Day of the week.  If so, when did you make the
    change, and by what authority?

    Yours very truly,
    J. L. Day

    Dear sir:
    Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish Sabbath to the
    Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts:

>     (1) That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith
>   and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath.
    The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe the Sunday, stultifies
    them in the eyes of every thinking man.

      (2) We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith.
    Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church,
    as a rule to guide us.  We say, this Church instituted by Christ, to teach
    and guide men through life, has the right to change the Ceremonial laws of
    the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to the Sunday.
    We frankly say, "yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she
    made many other laws, for instance, the Friday Abstinence, the unmarried
    priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic
    marriages, and a thousand other laws."

      (3) We also say that of all Protestants, the Seventh-day Adventists are
    the only group that reason correctly and are consistent with their
    teachings.  It is always somewhat laughable to see the Protestant Churches,
    in pulpit and legislature, demand the observance of Sunday of which there
    is nothing in the Bible.

    With best wishes,
    Peter R. Tramer, Editor

"Finally, at the last opening on the eighteenth of January 1562, all hesitation was set aside. The Archbishop of Reggio made a speech in which he openly declared that tradition stood above scripture. The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the church had changed... Sabbath into Sunday, not by the command of Christ, but by its own authority." [ Heinrich Julius Holtzmann, Kanon und Tradition (Ludwigsburg: Druck and Verlag von Ferd Riehm), 1859, page 263 in the German ]

Note: This document hasn't been rigged towards plugging the Seventh-day Adventists; since this time there are now other religious groups that keep the Saturday Sabbath as well.

Here we will discover the true meaning of the scriptures, and as we've seen, explore the histroy of where things went awry. Salvation is not limited-to Seventh-day Adventists, nor will doing anything like keeping a particular Sabbath give you salvation; however, in the following we will whittle out various Christian religions. If Seventh-day Adventism is the last straw in the pile, then at least we will have covered the reasons behind it. Seventh-day Adventists have been seriously misrepresented on doctrine, theology, and habits; if Seveth-day Adventism surfaces as a worthy topic of exploration, then we will address those issues at that time. Until such time though...

More importantly, this document is not a Catholic basher. Biblical evidence that points to the Roman Catholic Church will be presented, however. It is not any person that is under attack, but the system of Catholicism itself is what is being scrutinized sharply (at this point in the discussion). And in all cases, evidence (Biblical & historical) will be presented supporting any claims made. Thus there won't be slander for the sake of slander. There are many good Catholic people, who understand and follow the plan of salvation, and who will be saved.

The following World Wide Web resources give the date of the letter as May 22, 1934, which is twenty years before your letter's referenced date [ed: this should have been addressed above], and these references provide proof that Mr. John L. Day of Thomaston, Georgia addressed his letter to Pope Pius XI, and not to Pope Pius XII. The reply came from Peter R Tramer, editor of the Catholic Extension Magazine, Chicago, Illinois, which was under the blessing of Pope Pius XI.

1. There is a photocopy of the letter signed by J.L. Day on May 22, 1934 and includes the signature of Peter R Tramer, at http://www.remnantofgod.org/PiusAdmission.jpg
2. A photocopy of the letter appears on the Canadian web site http://www.revealed.org/stultify.htm, posted July 14, 1998 by Charles Huntley Clever and Tish Clever.
3. You will also find the text of the letter dated Thomaston, Georgia May 22, 1934, and the text of the reply, at http://www.bible-sabbath.com/Sabbath-Sunday/Asking%20the%20Pope.pdf.
4. The photocopy of the letter is on face book in http://www.facebook.com/das.acros. > Photos > http://www.facebook.com/das.acros/photos > 1 photo 07 November 2011 > http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.187047268043246.46195.173722069375766&type=3#!/photo.php?fbid=187047421376564&set=a.187047268043246.46195.173722069375766&type=3&theater
5. On a website with the server located in Canada, you will see the text and also below that a photocopy of the letter personally given out and signed by Mr. John L. Day to B. I. Hassenpflug in 1956 at a series of meetings in Atlanta, Georgia. This does not have the signature of Peter R. Tramer. http://english.sdaglobal.org/doctrine/topope.htm
6. Similar information is displayed on the Project Restore website that is located in the USA, http://www.projectrestore.com/library/timejoy/tjoych13.htm. The Editor notes that on the strength of this candid recommendation and his study of the Bible, Mr. Day became a Seventh-day Adventist.