Planned Calendar Reform Will Not Affect Sabbath, Vatican Assures

An assurance from the Vatican circles that the fixity of the Jewish Sabbath as the seventh day of the week would not be affected by the projected calendar reform which will be brought before the Ecumenical Council for discussion was received here today by the Israeli Committee to Combat Calendar Reform. Only the coordination of the dates of the Catholic Easter and the Greek Orthodox Easter will be discussed by the Council, it was indicated.

The projected World Calendar which is to be discussed by the Ecumenical Council at the Vatican in October, had originally envisaged a 13-month year, each month with four weeks and with one “world day” each year, which would not have been reckoned as an ordinary day of the week.

As a result of the extra day, the Jewish Sabbath, recurring every seven days, would after one year occur on a Friday, and in subsequent years fall one day earlier. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel, concerned with the effect that this would have on the observance of the traditional seventh day as the Jewish day of rest, set up a special committee enjoined to combat any reform of the calendar which might tend to alter the fixity of the Sabbath.

The technical expert was a Jerusalemite, Zvi Wahl, an authority on the Julian, Gregorian, Moslem and Hebrew calendars who submitted alternative proposals to the Ecumenical Council and to the United Nations. His proposals would achieve a universal calendar without affecting the fixity of the Sabbath.

He provided the Vatican with a detailed table for a permanent Easter which could be celebrated universally by all the churches. According to advice received today by the Israeli Committee to Combat Calendar Reform, the Greek Orthodox (Pravoslav) Church has agreed to accept a fixed date for Easter in accordance with the recommendations of the Ecumenical Council.