Convert’s Catechism of the Catholic Church

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Hello guys, I am discusing religion with my colleague (Adventist) in the work. He recently came up with something called “Convert’s Catechism of the Catholic Church“ by Rev. Peter Geiermann C.SS.R. Which says that Catholic Church changed the sabbath.

Is it some kind of fake? The only info about the author or the book is on adventist sites - which looks very suspicious to me. I am going to argue that it is not official teaching, but it would be helpful if I knew wether or not its fake.

Thanks
 
The early Christians–the Catholic Church–did indeed transfer observances associated with the sabbath to Sunday, since Christ was the fulfillment of the sabbath. As St. Gregory the Great declared: “For us, the true Sabbath is the person of our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ”.

For this reason, St. Paul enumerated the Sabbath among the Jewish observances which are not obligatory on Christians (see Colossians 2:16; Galatians 4:9-10; Romans 14:5).

But from the beginning Christians began to treat Sunday with the same spirit of rest that the Sabbath had (in addition to being the preeminent day for Christian worship). Various local councils addressed this over time, in different ways, until the present custom of resting from servile work on Sunday took hold universally.

There’s a good history here:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14335a.htm

See also here for a brief tract:

 
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First, about Peter Geiermann. Yes, he was a genuine Catholic priest, a Redemptorist. He lived from 1870 to 1929, and he is the author of that book.

Second, about the Sabbath. It’s unlikely that Geiermann used the expression “changed the Sabbath,” since Catholics don’t call Sunday the “Sabbath.” What he probably wrote in his book is that there are two or three verses in the New Testament that show that, in Paul’s day, Sunday had become the Christian day of worship.

Paul, Luke and the Christian community in Troas were already celebrating the Eucharist on Sunday, “the first day of the week,” yom rishon, in the middle of the first century, around the year 51:

• On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. (Acts 20:7, ESV)
 
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This particular catechism according to it being on Scribd dot com says it is from 1910, with the writer belonging to the Redemptorists.

From Sabbath to Sunday James P. Guzek • 2/1/1999

Catholic Answers - Changing the Sabbath Jimmy Akin • 12/1/1993

Catholic Answers - Sabbath or Sunday 2004

Did the Catholic Church Change the Sabbath - Jimmy Akin Oct. 11, 2012

Dies Domini -APOSTOLIC LETTER DIES DOMINI OF THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II From the Vatican, on 31 May, the Solemnity of Pentecost, in the year 1998. The whole document is worthwhile reading.

Chapter 1 Dies Domini
From the Sabbath to Sunday
  1. Because the Third Commandment depends upon the remembrance of God’s saving works and because Christians saw the definitive time inaugurated by Christ as a new beginning, they made the first day after the Sabbath a festive day, for that was the day on which the Lord rose from the dead. The Paschal Mystery of Christ is the full revelation of the mystery of the world’s origin, the climax of the history of salvation and the anticipation of the eschatological fulfilment of the world. What God accomplished in Creation and wrought for his People in the Exodus has found its fullest expression in Christ’s Death and Resurrection, though its definitive fulfilment will not come until the Parousia , when Christ returns in glory. In him, the “spiritual” meaning of the Sabbath is fully realized, as Saint Gregory the Great declares: “For us, the true Sabbath is the person of our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ”.(14) This is why the joy with which God, on humanity’s first Sabbath, contemplates all that was created from nothing, is now expressed in the joy with which Christ, on Easter Sunday, appeared to his disciples, bringing the gift of peace and the gift of the Spirit (cf. Jn 20:19-23). It was in the Paschal Mystery that humanity, and with it the whole creation, “groaning in birth-pangs until now” ( Rom 8:22), came to know its new “exodus” into the freedom of God’s children who can cry out with Christ, “Abba, Father!” ( Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). In the light of this mystery, the meaning of the Old Testament precept concerning the Lord’s Day is recovered, perfected and fully revealed in the glory which shines on the face of the Risen Christ (cf. 2 Cor 4:6). We move from the “Sabbath” to the “first day after the Sabbath”, from the seventh day to the first day: the dies Domini becomes the dies Christi !
 
That is a beautiful explanation of why early Christians gather on the Lord’s Day rather than on the Jewish Sabbath.

OP, do not run from that explanation. Embrace it.
 
This is the quote all adventists use:

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, in the Council of Laodicea, (AD 336) transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday….

Q. Why did the Catholic Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?
A. The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday, because Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday, and the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles on a Sunday.

Q. By what authority did the Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?
A. The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday by the plenitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ bestowed upon her!
—Rev. Peter Geiermann, C.SS.R., (1946), p. 50.

I have already provides him proofs that early church did celebrate on sunday however he insists that if he should choose between early christian writing and Bible he chooses Bible.

Regarding Acts 20:7 he i sists that breaking of the bread doesn’t have to mean Eucharist but regular breaking of the bread which they did whenever they ate.

Also uses Mat 24:20.

BTW: who are redeptorists?
 
ThoughtfulMind said:
Regarding Acts 20:7 he i sists that breaking of the bread doesn’t have to mean Eucharist but regular breaking of the bread which they did whenever they ate.
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Unlikely. That’s not the way the expression “breaking bread” is used in the New Testament. In the Gospels and Epistles, it is never used in connection with a normal meal. There are several meals in the Gospels, such as the wedding at Cana in John 2, Jesus dining at the house of a Pharisee (Matt 23, Mark 12, Luke 11), Jesus dining with Mary and Martha in Bethany (Luke 10), and Herod’s birthday party (Matt 14, Mark 6). You won’t find the words “breaking bread” in any of these episodes. It appears only in very special circumstances:

• The two miracles of the loaves and fish:
Matt 14:19, 15:36
Mark 8:6, 8:19

• The Last Supper and the Institution of the Eucharist:
Matt 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19, 1 Cor 10:16, 11:24

• The Road to Emmaus:
Luke 24:30-35

In Acts, also, the term is used very sparingly, in fact only three times altogether, and again only in special circumstances, never in the course of a normal meal. Here are the three passages in full:

• After Pentecost (Acts 2:43-47):

43 And fear came upon every soul; and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes , they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

• Paul and Luke in Troas (Acts 20: 7-12):

7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread , Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and he prolonged his speech until midnight. 8 There were many lights in the upper chamber where we were gathered. 9 And a young man named Eutychus was sitting in the window. He sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer; and being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. 10 But Paul went down and bent over him, and embracing him said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” 11 And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. 12 And they took the lad away alive, and were not a little comforted.

[cont.]
 
[cont.]

• The storm at sea (Acts 27: 33-38):

33 As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. 34 Therefore I urge you to take some food; it will give you strength, since not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.” 35 And when he had said this, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat. 36 Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. 37 (We were in all two hundred and seventy-six persons in the ship.) 38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.
 
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