CLAIMS OF THE
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
IT IS BECAUSE OF THE CLAIMS OF THE PAPACY (The Roman Catholic Church) THAT WE CAN CLEARLY SEE THE ORIGINATOR OF THE FOLLOWING MAN-MADE LAWS.
A) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
B) VARIOUS QUOTES OF DIVINITY.
C) UNDATED SOURCES
D) IN ORDER BY DATE.
E) CATECHISM OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
A) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
From, “Reverend Doctor Butler’s Catechism,” Revised, page 57:
Question: “What day was the Sabbath?”
Answer: “Saturday.”
Question: “Who changed it?”
Answer: “The Catholic Church.”
From “A Doctrinal Catechism,” by Stephen Keenan, New York, 1857, page 174:
Question: “Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?”
Answer: “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.”
From “A Doctrinal Catechism,” by Stephen Keenan, New York, 1857, page 181:
Question: “In what manner can we show a Protestant, that he speaks unreasonably against fasts and abstinences?”
Answer: “Ask him why he keeps Sunday, and not Saturday, as his day of rest, since he is unwilling either to fast or to abstain. If he reply, that the Scripture orders him to keep the Sunday, but says nothing as to fasting and abstinence, tell him the Scripture speaks of Saturday or the Sabbath, but gives no command anywhere regarding Sunday or the first day of the week. If, then he neglects Saturday as a day of rest and holiness, and substitutes Sunday in its place, and this merely because such was the usage of the ancient Church, should he not, if he wishes to act consistently, observe fasting and abstinence, because the ancient Church so ordained?”
From Reverend Peter Geiermann C.SS.R., in “The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine,” page 50:
Question: “Which is the Sabbath day?”
Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.”
Question: “Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?”
Answer: “We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”
From “The Douay Catechism,” page 59:
Question: “How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and holy days?”
Answer: “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.”
Question: “How prove you that?”
Answer: “Because by keeping Sunday they acknowledge the church’s power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin.”
From “Controversial Catechism,” by Stephen Keenan, “New Edition,” revised by Reverend George Cormack, published in London by Burns & Oates, Limited -- New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago: Benzinger Brothers, 1896, pages 6, 7:
Question: “Must not a sensible Protestant doubt seriously, when he finds that even the Bible is not followed as a rule by his co-religionists?”
Answer: “Surely, when he sees them baptize infants, abrogate the Jewish Sabbath, and observe Sunday for which [page 7] there is no Scriptural authority; when he finds them neglect to wash one another’s feet, which is expressly commanded, and eat blood and things strangled, which are expressly prohibited in Scripture. He must doubt, if he think at all.”
Question: “Should not the Protestant doubt when he finds that he himself holds tradition as a guide?”
Answer: “Yes, if he would but reflect that he has nothing but Catholic Tradition for keeping the Sunday holy.”
From Reverand Stephen Keenan, in “A Doctrinal Catechism,” New York in 1857, page 101:
Question: Have you any other proofs that they (Protestants) are not guided by the Scripture?”
Answer: “Yes; so many, that we cannot admit more than a mere specimen into this small work. They reject much that is clearly contained in Scripture, and profess more that is nowhere discoverable in that Divine Book.”
Question: “Give some examples of both?”
Answer: “They should, if the Scripture were their only rule, wash the feet of one another, according to the command of Christ, in the 13th chap. of St. John; -- they should keep, not the Sunday, but the Saturday, according to the commandment, ‘Remember thou keep holy the SABBATH-day;’ for this commandment has not, in Scripture, been changed or abrogated.”
B) VARIOUS QUOTES OF DIVINITY
From the “Second Vatican Council,” in 1865, and ratified by Pope John XXIII on October 11, 1962, and Pope Paul VI in 1963, Chapter 2, Point 10, in Dei Verbum:
“But the task of authentically interpreting the Word of God, whether written or handed on, (8) has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the church, (9) whose authority is exercised in the Name of Jesus Christ. [Small caveat to follow to ease Protestant minds] This teaching office is not above the Word of God, but serves It, teaching only what has been handed on [From the Roman Catholic church fathers].”
Continuing on: “Chapter 3, Point 12 (10): “The living tradition of the whole church must be taken into account along with the harmony which exists between elements of the faith. . . For all of what has been said about the way of interpreting Scripture is subject finally to the judgment of the church, which carries out the Divine commission and ministry of guarding and interpreting the Word of God.”
From the “First Vatican Council, Session 4 (18 July 1870), First Dogmatic Constitution on the church of Christ, Chapter 4, point 9:”
“. . .when Pope speaks Ex Cathedra [“infallibility”], it means that his statement is infallible. . . in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole church [meaning her and her daughters of non-Protestantism], he possesses, by the Divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the Divine Redeemer willed his church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals. Therefore, such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the church, irreformable. So then, should anyone, which God forbid, have the temerity to reject this definition of ours: let him be anathema.”
Under Point 3, ratified by Pope Pius IX: “Likewise I accept Sacred Scripture according to that sense which Holy mother church held and holds, since it is her right to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures; nor will I ever receive and interpret them except according to the unanimous consent of the fathers.”
From the “Encyclical Letter,” by Pope Leo XIII, in 1894, entitled, “Praeclara Gratulationis Publicac - The Reunion of Christendom:”
“But since We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty. . .”
Note: Notice the Capitalization of “We.”
From “Barelay,” Chapter 27, page 218:
“The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth.”
From Lucius Ferraris, in “Prompta Bibliotheca,” article “Papa,” II, Volume VI, page 29:
“The Pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret even Divine Law. The Pope can modify Divine Law, since his power is not of man, but of God, and he acts a vicegerent of God upon earth.”
From “The Catholic Encyclopedia,” Volume 12, page 265:
‘This judicial authority will even include the power to forgive sins.”
Roman Catholic (and Lutheran) changes of the Ten Commandments:
1) “I am the Lord your God you shall not have strange Gods before me.” But if they are not “strange?”
2) Canceled.
3) “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.” Not the Sabbath Day!
10) Split to as 9 & 10 to keep the number.
C) UNDATED SOURCES
From “The Question Box,” page 179:
“If the Bible is the only guide for the Christian, then the Seventh-day Adventist is right in observing the Saturday with the Jew. . . Is it not strange that those who make the Bible their only teacher, should inconsistently follow in this matter the tradition of the Catholic Church?”
From “Dies Domini,” paragraph 14:
“However, despite all of these acknowledged references that Saturday is the true Sabbath Day, without hesitation Pope John Paul has recently applied to Sunday God’s blessing and sanctification of the seventh day at creation. He writes: ‘Sunday is the day of rest because it is the day ‘blessed’ by God and ‘made holy’ by him, set apart from the other days to be, among them, ‘the Lord’s Day.’ ”
From the “Library of Christian Doctrine,” under, “Why Don’t You Keep Holy the Sabbath-Day?” (London: Burns and Oates, Ltd.), pages 3 & 4:”
“(3) What Important Question Does the Papacy Ask Protestants? Protestants have repeatedly asked the papacy, ‘How could you dare to change God’s law?’ But the question posed to Protestants by the Catholic church is even more penetrating. Here it is officially: ‘You will tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. Changed! but by whom? Who has authority to change an express commandment of Almighty God? When God has spoken and said, Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day, who shall dare to say, Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead?
“(4) This is a most important question, which I know not how you can answer. 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 that 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.”
From the “Canon Cafferata, The Catechism Explained,” page 89:
“The Sabbath was Saturday, not Sunday. The Church altered the observance of the Sabbath to the observance of Sunday. Protestants must be rather puzzled by the keeping of Sunday when God distinctly said, ‘Keep holy the Sabbath Day.’ The word Sunday does not come anywhere in the Bible, so, without knowing it they are obeying the authority of the Catholic Church.”
From Henry Tuberville, in “An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine,” page 58:
“As the sign of the authority of the Catholic Church, papist writers cite: ‘the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; . . . because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the church’s power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin.’ ”
From “The Converts, Catechism,” by Peter Geirmann, page 50:
“We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church in the Council of Laodicea [384 A.D.] transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”
From “The Catholic Encyclopedia,” Volume IV, page 153:
“The church. . . after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the third commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord’s day.”
From Adrien Nampon, in “Catholic Doctrine as Defined by the Council of Trent,” page 157:
“Tradition, not Scripture, is the rock on which the church of Jesus Christ is built.”
C ) IN ORDER BY DATE
From the “Council Of Laodicea,” 363-364 A.D.:
“Canon 29 - Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.”
Note: This “Council of Laodicea” was ratified by Pope Leo I at the “Council of Chalcedon” in 451 A.D.
From the “Council Of Trent,” 1564 A.D., page 243, under the section “The Sabbath, Why Changed To Sunday:
“But the church of God has thought it well to transfer the celebration and observance of the Sabbath to Sunday.”
From “Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today,” by Monsignor Louis Segur, 1868, page 213:
“It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest to the Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Roman Catholic] Church.”
From “The Faith of Our Fathers,” by Cardinal Gibbons, Chapter 8, 1876, republished and copyrighted in 1980, by “TAN Books and Publishers, Incorporated,” pages 72-73:
“You may search 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 never sanctify.”
From the “American Catholic Quarterly Review,” January 1883 we have this admittance:
“Sunday. . . is purely a creation of the Catholic church.”
From “n. 25 of Lumen Gentium,” (Richard M. Gula, Reason Informed by Faith, Paulist Press 1989, Pages 153 & 155):
“In matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful accept their teaching and adhere to it with religious assent of soul. This religious submission of will and of mind must be shown in a special way to the authentic teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff, even when his is not speaking ex cathedra.”
From “The American Sentinel,” a New York Roman Catholic journal, June 1893, page 173:
“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 holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says ‘Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.’ The Catholic Church says -- No. 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.”
From the “Catholic Record,” September 17, 1893:
“Sunday is founded, not of Scripture, but on tradition, and is distinctly a Catholic Institution. As there is no Scripture for the transfer of the day of rest from the last to the first day of the week, Protestants ought to keep their Sabbath on Saturday and thus leave the Catholic church in full possession of Sunday.”
From “The Catholic Mirror,” September 23, 1893:
“The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.”
From Cardinal Gibbons, in, “The Catholic Mirror,” December 23, 1893:
“Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives; either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is impossible.”
From William Gildea, Doctor of Divinity, in “The Catholic World,” March, 1894, page 809:
“The Sun was a foremost god with heathen-dom. . . The sun has worshippers at this hour in Persia and other lands. . . There is, in truth, something royal, kingly about the sun, making it a fit emblem of Jesus, the Sun of Justice. Hence the church in these countries would seem to have said, to ‘Keep that old pagan name [Sunday]. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified.’ And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus.”
From H.F. Thomas, Chancellor under Cardinal Gibbons, in a “Letter Written November 11,” 1895:
“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 things.”
From the “Catholic Press,” August 25, 1900:
“Sunday is a Catholic institution, and. . . can be defended only on Catholic principles. . . From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first.”
From Priest Brady, in an address reported in “The Elizabeth N.J. News,” March 18, 1903:
“It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church.”
From “The Catholic Encyclopedia, Commandments of God,” Volume IV, 1908, by Robert Appleton Company, or from the “Online Edition,” 1999, by Kevin Knight, Nihil Obstat --Remy Lafort, Censor Imprimatur -- copied by John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York, page 153:
“The Church, on the other hand, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord’s Day. The Council of Trent (Sess. VI, can. xix) condemns those who deny that the Ten Commandments are binding on Christians.” Note: Notice that they had to keep the number at Ten.
From Albert Smith, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, replying to the Cardinal of Baltimore, in a “Letter Of February, 10,” 1920:
“If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath Day. In keeping the Sunday, they are following a law of the Catholic Church.”
From Pope Pius XI, April 30th, 1922:
“You know that I am the Holy Father, the representative of God on earth, the Vicar of Christ, which means I am God on earth”
From the “Catholic Record,” September 1, 1923:
“Deny the authority of the Church and you have no adequate or reasonable explanation or justification for the substitution of Sunday for Saturday in the Third -- Protestant Fourth -- Commandment of God. . . The Church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.”
From “The Catholic Record of London, Ontario, Canada,” September 1, 1923:
“Sunday is our mark of authority. . . the church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.”
From “A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies,” by Revelation John Laux M.A., “Benzinger Brothers,” 1936 edition, Part 1:
“If we consulted the Bible only, we should still have to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is, Saturday, with the Jews, instead of Sunday.”
From “The Catholic Universe Bulletin,” August 14, 1942, page 4:
“The [Roman Catholic] Church changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by right of the divine, infallible authority given to her by her founder, Jesus Christ. The Protestant claiming the Bible to be the only guide of faith, has no warrant for observing Sunday. In this matter the Seventh-day Adventist is the only consistent Protestant.”
From Vincent J. Kelly, in “Forbidden Sunday and Feast-Day Occupations,” Washington, DC, Catholic University of America Press, Studies in Sacred Theology, Number 70., 1943, page 2:
“Some theologians have held that God likewise directly determined the Sunday as the day of worship in the NEW LAW, that he himself has explicitly substituted sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is entirely abandoned. It is now commonly held that God simply gave His church the power to set aside whatever day or days she would deem suitable as holy days. The church chose sunday, the first day of the week, and in the course of time added other days as holy days.”
From “The Catholic Virginian,” under, “To Tell You The Truth,” Volume 22, Number 49 (October 3, 1947):
“All of us believe many things in regard to religion that we do not find in the Bible. For example, nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the Church outside the Bible.”
From “The Catholic Virginian,” October 3, 1947:
“Nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is the seventh day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the church [Roman] outside the Bible.”
From “Our Sunday Visitor,” February 5th, 1950:
“Protestants. . . accept Sunday rather than Saturday as the day for public worship after the Catholic Church made the change. . . But the Protestant mind does not seem to realize that. . . in observing Sunday, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the Church, the pope.”
From “The Catholic Extension Magazine, Thomaston, Georgia,” May 22, 1954:
“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 Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe 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 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. . . 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 Sundays of which there is nothing in the Bible.”
From “Understanding the Catholic Faith,” page 13, 1955 edition:
“The Bible does not contain all the teachings of the Catholic religion, nor does it formulate all the duties of its members. Take, for instance, the matter of Sunday observance, attendance at divine service, and abstention from unnecessary servile work on that day. This is a matter upon which our Protestant neighbors have for many years laid great emphasis; yet nowhere in the Bible is the Sunday designated as the Lord’s day; the day mentioned is the Sabbath, the last day of the week. The early Church, conscious of her authority to teach in the name of Christ, deliberately changed the day to Sunday.”
From “This Is Catholicism,” 1959 edition, John Walsh, S.J., page 325, writes:
“The Catholic Church transferred the observance from the seventh to the first day of the week. . . The Catholic Church deemed it more fitting to appoint this day, rather than Saturday, the festival day of Christian:”
From Peter R. Kraemer, “Catholic Church Extension Society,” Chicago, Illinois, 1975:
“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 to guide man through life, has the right to change the ceremonial laws {Note, The Sabbath is NOT a “ceremonial law”] of the Old Testament and hence, we accept the change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly said yes, the church made this change, made the law, as she made many other laws.”
From John Paul II, in “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” page 3, 1994:
“The leader of the Catholic church is defined by the faith as the Vicar of Jesus Christ (and is accepted as such by believers). The Pope is considered the man on earth who ‘takes the place’ of the Second Person of the omnipotent God of the Trinity.”
From “The Sentinel,” Pastor’s page, Saint Catherine Catholic Church, Algonac, Michigan, May 21, 1995:
“Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. ‘The Day of the Lord’ (dies Dominica) was chosen, not from any directions noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church’s sense of its own power. The day of resurrection, the day of Pentecost, fifty days later, came on the first day of the week. So this would be the new Sabbath. . . people who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become 7th Day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy.”
From “Dominus Jesus,” September 5th, 2000:
“Catholic teaching holds that any Roman Catholic, any non-Catholic Christian, or any non-Christian of whatever other religion who receives God’s salvation receives it through the spiritual office of that one man in Rome and the merits of his church of believers.”
From “The Catholic Christian,” instructed in the sacraments, August 15, 2011, Chapter 23, page 272, we read: “Question, What warrant have you for keeping Sunday preferably to the ancient Sabbath which was Saturday? Answer, We hjave for it the authority of the Catholic church.”
From the “Encyclical Letter,” titled, “Laudato Si’,” 2015, by Pope Francis:
“On Sunday, our participation in the Eucharist has special importance. Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath, is meant to be a day which heals our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world. Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, the ‘first day’ of the new creation, whose first fruits are the Lord’s risen humanity, the pledge of the transfiguration of all created reality. It also proclaims ‘man’s eternal rest in God.’. . .
“It protects human action from becoming empty activism; it also prevents that unfettered greed and sense of isolation that makes us seek personal gain to the detriment of all else. The law of weekly rest forbade work on the seventh day, ‘so that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your maidservant, and the stranger, may be refreshed’ (Ex 23:12). Res opens our eyes to the larger picture and gives us renewed sensitivity to the rights of others. And so the day of rest, centered on the Eucharist, sheds it light on the whole week, and motivates us to greater concern for nature and the poor.”
From “ABC NEWS,” by Franfces D’Emilio, “Associated Press,” September 1, 2020, 7:06 A.M., titled, “Pope: Use pandemic to give the environment a vital ‘rest.’ ” Quote: “Pope Francis says the coronavirus pandemic has shown how the Earth can recover ‘if we allow it to rest [meaning Sunday worship] and must spur people to adopt simpler lifestyles to help the planet.”
D) CATECHISM OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Below are quotes, all taken “ONLY” from the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” (New York: Doubleday, 1995):
“The power to ‘bind and loose’ connotes the authority to absolve sins. . . Jesus entrusted this authority to the Church through the ministry of the apostles.” Number 553.
“As sacrament, the Church is Christ’s instrument. ‘She is taken up by him also as the instrument for the salvation of all,’ ‘the universal sacrament of salvation.’ ” Number 776.
“It is in the Church that ‘the fullness of the means of salvation’ has been deposited.” Number 824.
“Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation.” Number 846.
“The Church is catholic: she proclaims the fullness of the faith. She bears in herself and administers the totality of the means of salvation.” Number 868.
“There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive.” Number 982.
“Were there no forgiveness of sins in the Church, there would be no hope of life to come or eternal liberation. Let us thank God who has given his Church such a gift.” Number 983.
“By Christ’s will, the Church possesses the power to forgive the sins of the baptized.” Number 986.
“Through the liturgy Christ, our redeemer and high priest, continues the work of our redemption in, with, and through His Church.” Number 1069.
“Baptism is birth into the new life in Christ. In accordance with the Lord’s will, it is necessary for salvation, as is the Church herself, which we enter by Baptism.” Number 1277.