Catholic Cardinal: Sunday Worship Strengthens Church and Community Life, and those who Deliberately Disregard it Commit Grave Sin

On March 11, 2023, the Catholic Archbishop of Singapore, William Goh, who was elevated to Cardinal status by Pope Francis in 2022, published a formal directive ordering people to return to church on Sunday. The order was called “Restoring the Solemnity and the Spirit of the Day of the Lord by Participation in the Sunday Eucharist.” In his capacity as leader, Cardinal Goh cautioned clergy and laypeople alike that the Sunday Eucharist is the cornerstone of faith and the solution to “the world’s despair.” He added that it is a “grave sin” to purposely skip Sunday services. Additionally, he asserts that Catholic doctrine is “also important to strengthen the community and to help them walk together in faith.”

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore published Cardinal Goh’s words, which stated the following:

“The Sunday Eucharist has always been held in great importance by the Church. The commemoration of the Lord’s resurrection is a tradition going back to the Apostles and hence called the Lord’s Day. Celebrating the resurrection of our Lord is the heart of Christian Faith. It is the basis of our faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. It is also the answer to the world’s despair and the meaning of life.” [1]

“For this reason, the Church has legislated that “on Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass”  (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No 2180 cf Canon Law 1247). It also states that “unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants, or vulnerable to infectious disease) or given dispensation by their own pastor, those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin” (CCC 2181, cf Canon Law 1245). This law is imposed not to make our lives inconvenient but to underscore the grave obligation that active participation in the Sunday Eucharist is vital for Christian life. We must not reduce Sunday, the Day of the Lord simply to a weekend of rest, shopping, dining, or engaging in cultural and sporting activities. Church Laws are given more for the weak, and not so much for those who are disciplined in their spiritual life.” [1]

“Church Laws are also important to strengthen the community and to help them walk together in faith. That is why we should not merely fulfil the obligation in a perfunctory manner but interiorise the Spirit of the Sunday Obligation. Just “attending Mass” itself would not be the right spirit in fulfilling this obligation. One must participate in the Mass with the intention of giving glory to God, to consecrate the entire day to Him by sharing our life and love with our fellow Catholics and extending the love we receive with those who do not know Christ especially by our works of charity.” [1]

It is clear from Cardinal Goh’s words that he is not just speaking to his Catholic parishioners. The “community” at large and those who “do not know Christ” are both included. His message is that you are committing a great sin if you skip Sunday worship. What Cardinal Goh is saying is what the Roman Catholic Church has done for millennia. They are manipulating people, sowing seeds of doubt, and making people question what God Himself has said about the Sabbath day.

Sunday is not the Lord’s Day or the day of rest and worship. Saturday is the true Lord’s Day. The Sabbath has never been changed, will never be changed, and cannot be changed because it is a memorial of creation. It was blessed and sanctified by God and is enshrined in the Moral Law (Genesis 2:1–3; Exodus 20:8–11). And Jesus made it clear that He is the Lord of the Sabbath day (Mark 2:28).

You can deceive both yourself and other people by celebrating your birthday on a day other than the one on which you were actually born. You are welcome to host your friends and celebrate a day on which you were not born. You can proclaim your fictitious birthdate from the rooftops and perpetuate your fraud throughout the world. However, there is no way to alter the truth about when you were actually born or to rewrite history.

Today, the world has sanctified the first day of the week and is participating in an act of misrepresentation and fraud. Millions believe that Sunday is the day of rest, but as long as God endures, as long as His word is true, and as long as the earth remains, the seventh-day Sabbath is a rebuke to all those who are worshiping on the wrong day.

Before sin entered our world, the Sabbath was a memorial to the living God. Before sin destroyed the perfect peace and unity that existed in the Garden of Eden, the Sabbath had been established, blessed, and sanctified by the Lord. And this memorial of God will live on throughout eternity in the earth made new (Isaiah 66:22, 23). Yes, after this world has been purified and all the marks of sin have been forever removed, Saturday, not Sunday, will remain for all eternity as the true day of worship for the Creator.

The true Sabbath has not simply been forgotten by people; rather, it has been ruthlessly and purposefully trampled underfoot by the beast of Bible prophecy. Instead of keeping God’s Sabbath, men have elevated a fictitious day of rest that has unholy origins. There is a power that is not godly and has sought to change the commandments of God for the traditions of men. It was the little horn (Daniel 7:25) who thinks that he could “change” times and laws. It was the mystery of iniquity, the man of sin, who changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the day of the sun, Sunday, a day revered in paganism.

The Roman papacy officially decreed the change from Saturday to Sunday during the Council of Laodicea in AD 364:

“Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honour, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ” (Strand, op. cit., citing Charles J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church, 2 [Edinburgh, 1876] 316).

High-ranking Catholic leaders freely admit that the Catholic Church made this change:

“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 [the Catholic Church] never sanctify.” (Faith of Our Fathers, 92nd ed., p. 89).

“The Catholic Church, … by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday” (The Catholic Mirror, official publication of James Cardinal Gibbons, Sept. 23, 1893).

“Protestants do not realize that by observing Sunday, they accept the authority of the spokesperson of the Church, the Pope” (Our Sunday Visitor, February 5, 1950).

“Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change [Saturday Sabbath to Sunday] was her act… And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things” (H.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons).

“The church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact” (Catholic Record of London, Ontario, Sept. 1, 1923).

“Prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the Catholic Church alone. The Catholic Church says, by my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week. And lo! The entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the Holy Catholic Church” (Thomas Enright, CSSR, President, Redemptorist College [Roman Catholic], Kansas City, MO, Feb. 18, 1884).

“The Pope has power to change times, to abrogate laws, and to dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ. The Pope has authority and has often exercised it, to dispense with the command of Christ” (Decretal, de Tranlatic Episcop).

The true seventh-day Sabbath is rooted in the eternal word of God. It is as timeless as eternity. It is a memorial of God’s creative and redemptive power (Deuteronomy 5:15). On the other hand, the Papacy, in its blind and blasphemous presumption, claims to be able to change the moral law of God by dispensing altogether with the Sabbath that He established. This is the same spirit that the Bible warned us about:

“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:29, 30.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4.

It appears that the “falling away” into apostasy started even in the times of the apostles, which is how the papal power came to be. Now, once again, they are making calls for the return of Sunday rest, not just for the church but for all of society. We are aware of where this is going. All the cries for tolerance and compassion, for coexistence and peace, will soon come to an end.

“God’s Word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures, in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage-ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the Word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution” (Great Controversy, p. 581).

Sources

[1] https://www.catholic.sg/restoring-the-solemnity-and-the-spirit-of-the-day-of-the-lord-by-participation-in-the-sunday-eucharist/