Any country ever? You might want to read history about the holy roman empire,
and forced sunday observance in the past ages. Today THE CALL FOR SUNDAY REST,
and linking this with care for the climate.
The popes has been a strong advocate of the revival of Sunday keeping. “Without Sunday
[worship], we cannot live!” Pope Benedict xvi declared during a mass on Sept. 9, 2007,
stating that it was a “necessity” for all people.
The Roman Catholic Church has been fighting to make Sunday observance
again mandatory in Europe for quite some time now.
The principle of Sunday rest is already codified in EU law for all employees under 18,
within the 1994 Protection of Young People at Work Directive.
March 2017 Catholic Church wants to ban working on sundays
https://www.total-croatia-news.com/business/17053-catholic-church-wants-to-ban-working-on-sunday
Monday 5 September 2016 Polish draft law on limitation of commerce on Sundays
More than half a million signatures in support of Polish draft law on limitation of commerce on Sundays - Uni Europa
November 23, 2016 EU bishops back Pillar of Social Rights, call for recognition of Sunday rest
https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=30022
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Germany’s Quiet Sundays’
For Germans, whether religious or otherwise, Sunday is a sacred day of rest.
That’s what the Wall Street Journal said in its Life & Style section on March 23.
“Germany holds to much the same Monday-to-Friday workweek rhythm as the rest
of the world, but on Sundays it skips a beat,” wrote Frankfurt-based assistant news
editor Sarah Sloat in her article
http://www.wsj.com/articles/from-th...sundays-1427151283?KEYWORDS=German+and+Sunday
She continues:
This uber-efficient country, which puts more restrictions on Sunday activities
than nearly all of its neighbors, nearly shuts down. …
Opening Sundays to shopping is fiercely resisted .… Efforts by retailers and businesses
to loosen the rules have also been unsuccessful. But a blanket prohibition was lifted in 2006,
when states were allowed to designate a certain number of Sundays as open for shopping.
In Hesse, where Frankfurt is located, four are permitted each year.
So normal labor and commerce are tightly restricted on Sundays. But what if residents
want to spend their Sunday doing yard work around their homes? Sloat answers this:
Laws regulating shopping hours and noise levels mean stores shut, lawnmowers fall silent,
and woe unto him who flips the switch on an electric tool. … Sonntagsruhe is one term
they use. It simply means “Sunday rest.”
Anyone considering undertaking outdoor chores or home improvements will be in
for a surprise. Regulations limit noise levels, forbidding the use of electric tools
like drills and leaf blowers, as well as hammering, sawing and loud music.
At recycling containers, it’s even prohibited to throw away glass jars and bottles
on Sunday because of the noise. Heavy trucks are banned from German roads on Sunday
… to relieve streets and cities of noise and traffic, and to give drivers a break.
The wsj article makes only a passing and vague mention of the influence of “churches”
on Germany’s reverence for Sundays. But there is one specific church which lies at
the very heart of why Germany “skips a beat” on Sundays: Roman Catholicism.
the Brussels-based European Sunday Alliance, a network of dozens of religious
and nonreligious organizations from 27 European nations whose purpose,
according to its website, is to “raise awareness of the unique value of synchronized
free time for our European societies.”
At the helm of these crusaders for Sunday rest is the Roman Catholic Church.
On March 3, the European Sunday Alliance met in Brussels with politicians from
all around the European Union for a “Call for Action” about banning Sunday work.
European Sunday Alliance - Legal victory for the protection of a work-free Sunday
The press release for the meeting says:
Stop Sunday Work Now! … Europe is not only an economic but also a social and
cultural community. … The “economization” of Sundays and public holidays
deepens social divisions at the expense of workers and their families.
The common weekly day of rest is a clear and visible sign for the reconciliation
of personal, family and professional life. … We need a Europe-wide Sunday protection.
[T]he European Sunday Alliance draws attention to Sunday as the common weekly day
of rest which enables EU citizens to live their citizenship together.
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Why does this Sunday alliance exist and work so arduously to influence Europe’s
labor laws? Why is the Catholic Church so adamant about instituting a Continent-wide
day of rest? And why must it be Sunday instead of another day of the week?
In large part, it is because it was the Catholic Church—in intentional violation
of biblical teachings—that appointed Sunday as a day of rest and worship.
The Vatican is proud of the success it had in this colossal feat, and Sunday rest
has become a mark of the Catholic Church’s authority.
This truth is best explained by the Vatican’s own:
¦“Sunday is a Catholic institution and its claim to observance 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” (Catholic Press, August 1900).
¦“Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. … And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things” (letter from the office of Cardinal Gibbons, Nov. 11, 1895).
¦“The church is above the Bible; and this transference of Sabbath observance from Saturday to Sunday is proof positive of that fact. 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 Catholic Record, Sept. 1, 1923).
¦“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) [or “Sunday”] was chosen, not from any direction noted in the Scriptures, but from the church’s sense of its own power. … People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically … keep Saturday holy” (Saint Catherine Catholic Church Sentinel, May 21, 1995).
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The March meeting, and the European Sunday Alliance’s ongoing efforts are bringing the Vatican-influenced EU closer to declaring Sunday as the official Continent-wide day of rest. Any steps in that direction should alarm religious liberty watchers, those concerned about a failure to separate church and state, and anyone familiar with Catholicism’s violent history.
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Historically, when the Catholic Church has started telling everyone to observe Sunday, it has soon after started enforcing that law with brutality. Take the Council of Laodicea, for example. In a.d. 363, the Catholic Church proclaimed that all those who did not keep Sunday, but rather rested on Saturday, were “anathema”—cursed, or excommunicated—from Christ. The Roman Empire then started torturing and martyring all who disobeyed. After Charlemagne gained power over Europe, he too began murdering those who kept Saturday. Throughout the Middle Ages, Saturday observers were tortured and murdered at the behest of the Catholic Church.
Every time Europe has been strong and united, it has enforced Sunday worship.
Europe is becoming united, and its leaders are once again trying to enforce Sunday.
As in the past, when the Catholic Church has the power to enforce Sunday,
life will be brutal for those who disagree.