HOLY DAYS OR HOLIDAYS?
Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph.D., Professor of Theology, Andrews University
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The following essay is an article I recently wrote and submitted to LIBERTY magazine. The article has been accepted for publication. I thought you might appreciate reading it ahead of time. The article focuses on the efforts of the Catholic church to promote her religious annual holy days as civil holidays. I believe that this is a significant endtime development that deserves our attention. Feel free to share with me your reactions. Should the State protect the observance of religious Holy Days by making them civil holidays? The answer of those committed to the separation between Church and State is clearly "NO!" Civil laws should not be passed to protect the observance of the religious Holy Days of a particular church. Such laws violate the First Amendment of the American Constitution: "Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion."

Recent developments, however, indicate that some churches are committed to protect the observance of their Holy Days by means of civil legislation, even if this means violating the First Amendment. For example, the new Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly states: "In respecting religious liberty and the common good of all, Christians should seek recognition of Sunday and the Church's Holy Days as legal holidays."1 The religious liberty to which the Catechism alludes is not the freedom of all religions to observe their respective Holy Days, but the freedom of Catholics to observe their own Holy Days under the protection of civil legislation. The same appeal is made by Pope John Paul II's in his Pastoral Letter Dies Domini: "In the particular circumstances of our time, Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy."2 By calling for Sunday legislation to protect Sunday observance, the Pope ignores the discriminatory nature of such legislation against those who observe Saturday or other days of the week.

VIOLATING THE SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE
The Catholic Church is not only urging Christians "to seek recognition of Sunday and of the Church's Holy Days as legal holidays," but is also employing the diplomatic channels and influence of the Holy See to achieve this objective. The Holy See, which is the moral and juridical representative of the Catholic Church, is actively involved in persuading the international community of nations to recognize Catholic Holy Days as legal holidays. The efforts of the Holy See have been most successful. In almost all the countries where the Catholic Church exercises a dominant influence, the local governments have made the Catholic Holy Days national civil holidays. In my native Italy, for example, as well as in France, Spain, Portugal, and all Central and South American countries, August 15 is a national holiday that commemorates the Catholic belief in the assumption of Mary to heaven. The same is true of November 1, a national holiday that commemorates what the Catholic church calls "All saints day." Other countries are currently urged to recognize Catholic Holy Days as legal holidays. Croatia, for example, signed an agreement with the Holy See on February 11, 1999 regarding juridical questions. Article 9 of the agreement explicitly states as follows: "Sunday and the following Holy Days will be free from work: a) January 1, commemoration of Mary, the most holy Mother of God, New Year; b) January 6, the Epiphany of the Lord or the Holy Magi; c) Monday following Easter-Sunday; d) August 15, the Assumption of the Blessed virgin Mary; e) November 1, all the saints; f) December 25, the Birth of the Lord; g) December 26, first day after Christmas, St. Stephan."3 The Constitutionality of Religious Holidays. The attempt to influence national governments to adopt as national, civil holidays, the religious Holy Days of a particular church, clearly violates the separation between Church and State. Such a violation does not seem to preoccupy the Catholic church, concerned as she is in advancing her own cause, even if it means sacrificing the fundamental principle of the separation between Church and State.