Antonio Matteo To answer the question Why do we use BCE and ACE instead of BC and AD?, imagine a date associated with a certain religion which your people barely knew about let alone believed in. The use of BC Before Christ (BC) and After the Death of Christ (AD) was alien to many people of cultures and religions especially people who weren’t originated or associated from or with the three Abrahamic monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Gregory Popes I - XIII, perhaps failed to realized in their time that not everyone was a Christian nor wanting to continue to be christian, and not every christian believed in Christ died for their sins before universalised the christian dating system. Moreover, history isn’t exclusive to Christianity and also that history shouldn’t be written through the lens of a single religion among many religions of the world. These complexities were reasons why was changed from christianity dating system (BC/AD) to a more liberal and inclusive dating system, common era (CE). Instead of Before Christ (BC) or After Death of Christ (AD), we use Before Common Era (BCE) or After Common Era (ACE). Note, only the meaning changes not the numbers. That’s 1000 BC is equivalent to 1000 BCE. Now you get!
