The church fights in Europe to prohibit working on Sunday

Actualidad.  August 31, 2017

On Wednesday, August 23, 2017, Polish bishops requested a total ban on work on Sunday in a country where the law is very liberal on this particular point. Likewise, throughout Europe, several episcopal conferences are trying again to place the issue of Sunday rest at the center of political debates.

 
The president of the Episcopal Conference of Poland, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, declared on Wednesday, August 23, 2017, on behalf of the bishops of Poland that "both Catholics and non-Catholics and atheists need to rest on Sunday."
 
Although it has the support of the Solidarity Labor Union party , the Church in Poland has not been able to impose its point of view.
 
In this country deeply imbued with Catholicism, civil law allows work on Sunday and holidays. However, there has been progress: the current government is in favor of the ban, and will address the issue next fall.
 
As usually happens, the declaration of the episcopal conference is only limited to defending Sunday rest, but does not mention any religious motive. Proposes ad hominem arguments, such as the need for a "better quality of life". In the same context, the Archbishop of Katowice, Monsignor Wiktor Skworc, declared that "families not only need financial support, but also free time."
 
Sunday rest has its origin in the Decalogue: "Six days you will work, and you will do all your work. But the seventh day is a day of rest, consecrated to Yahweh your God; and you will not do any work in it, neither you, nor your son, neither your daughter, nor your servant, nor your servant, nor your cattle, nor the foreigner who is within your doors "(Exodus 20: 9-10) From the Resurrection of Christ, the rest day is Sunday, the" Lord's Day "- dies Domini. Therefore, Sunday as a day of rest is a matter of positive divine law; all the Church did was explain this command of God and make it more explicit. Later, he also included it in his code of canon law and in his universal catechism.
 
When, after the Edict of Milan, the Church's relations with temporal power were normalized, the latter followed the example of ecclesiastical law in this matter. Thus, in a decree of March 7, 321, Emperor Constantine declared: "On the venerable day of the sun, may the magistrates and the people rest in the cities, and may all the workshops be closed."
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This practice was constant in the Church throughout the centuries, until the first attacks against Sunday, the sacred day in which the faithful fulfill their duties to render to God the worship that is due. The first attacks took place during the French Revolution, with the republican calendar imposed between 1793 and 1806; this one suppressed the week of seven days thus eliminating Sundays.
 
Currently, where atheistic and secular ideologies have failed, commercial interests succeed. For many years now, there have been new laws in favor of Sunday work. Modern Popes have tried to control these changes. On May 31, 1998, in his Apostolic Letter Dies Domini , Pope John Paul II recalled that Sunday rest "is the way man has to withdraw from the plaintiff and excessive cycle of earthly tasks to remember that God is the author of everything."
 
Also, in August 2009, the 24 Eucharistic Congress was held in Bari, Italy, on the theme: "Without Sunday, we cannot live." At the closing of the congress, Benedict XVI asked Christians to rediscover the spiritual importance of Sunday, as "an expression of the identity of the Christian community" against "unbridled consumerism" and "religious indifference."
 
Paradoxically, in Europe, a small number of highly secularized countries, such as Austria and Germany, seem to be more respectful towards Sunday rest. In an article published in La Croix , Delphine Allaire cites the German Constitution stipulated in article 139: "Sundays and holidays recognized by the state remain legally protected as days of rest and spiritual edification." In Belgium, it is only allowed to work three Sundays a year, except in the tourist cities.
 
However, in most European countries, including the United Kingdom, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy and Portugal, as well as in Madrid, the capital of Spain, business is open 52 Sundays at year. In highly Catholic countries such as Italy, Portugal and Spain, heated public discussions regularly erupt, La Croix adds. Therefore, in 2014, the Spanish bishop of Santander, Vicente Jiménez, called for a "united front", appealing to the authorities to resist "economic pressures" that seek to liberalize working hours.
 
In France, Sunday rest lost importance after the promulgation of the Macron Law in 2015, which created 21 international tourist areas in a country where it is allowed, through a trade agreement, to work on Sundays.
 
In Italy, Delphine Allaire explains, the Episcopal Conference prefers to stick to the protection of the rights of "workers" to spend time with their families on Sundays, supporting the country's main business association, Confesercenti.
 
It should be noted that on June 9, 1873, at the feast of the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in Saint-Bauzille-de-la-Sylve in the Hérault, to Auguste Arnaud, a young winemaker of 30 years old , who worked during the week, and who was working in his small vineyard, and said very seriously: "You must not work on Sunday. Blessed are those who believe; woe to those who do not believe." This Marian apparition was recognized by the authorities of the Church, and serves to demonstrate once again the importance of sanctifying the Lord's Day. The Mother of God had already reminded men of the importance of this religious obligation in La Salette.