🛡️The Defense of the Change and the Original Intention of Pius XI
The text begins its critical analysis by contrasting the two dates for the celebration of Christ the King: the traditional one, on the last Sunday of October, and that of the Novus Ordo, on the last Sunday of the liturgical year in November. The critique is framed by the justification of a priest, J. David Carter, who defends the change by stating that the original placement was "somehow arbitrary," while the new date at the end of the liturgical year is "more fitting" to celebrate the coming of Christ in His glory to reign. The article dedicates itself to completely dismantling this view, demonstrating that Pius XI's original choice was far from arbitrary and that the change represented a deliberate weakening of the doctrine of the Social Kingship of Christ.
To understand the depth of the original feast, the text refers directly to the encyclical Quas Primas of Pius XI. The Pope instituted the feast on the last Sunday of October, immediately before the Feast of All Saints, with a clear purpose: to underscore that the glory of Christ, inaugurated in His earthly mission, is perpetuated in history through the saints. The feast primarily celebrates "the unceasing kingship of Christ over all reality, including this present world." The objective was to insist on the rights of Jesus Christ "here and now" and on the corresponding duties of men and nations on Earth. The encyclical is unequivocal in stating that "the whole of mankind is subject to the power of Jesus Christ" and that the rulers of nations, in order to preserve their authority and promote prosperity, have a "public duty of reverence and obedience to the rule of Christ." Furthermore, the text points to a crucial polemical context: the last Sunday of October had been celebrated for centuries as the Protestant "Reformation Sunday." Instituting on this date a Catholic feast on the universal kingship of Christ and the authority of His Church was a direct and powerful application of the principle lex orandi, lex credendi, a true Catholic counter-feast.
This original intention was not merely an act of piety, but a political and theological declaration against the advance of laicism and naturalism, which seek to relegate religion to the private sphere and deny Christ's authority over society. The original feast was a call to Catholic militancy, a reminder that faith cannot be divorced from public life. The refusal to accept the Social Kingship of Christ is, ultimately, a rejection of the Divine Plan for order, which requires States and Nations to acknowledge the Catholic Church as the One Way established by God for the ordered return of human beings to Him (Fahey, 1953, p. 9). The separation of Church and State, celebrated by the modern world, is in fact the enthronement of a satanic program that places all religions on the same level, including "Jewish perfidy," and prepares the way for national apostasy (Fahey, 1953, p. 12, 37).
🔄The Substitution of One Feast for Another: The New Eschatological Theology
The central point of the text's critique is that the feast was not simply moved; it was transformed and replaced. Quoting directly from Paul VI's document, Calendarium Romanum, the author highlights the use of the Latin word loco, which means "instead of" or "in place of." The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, of the Novus Ordo, replaces the feast instituted by Pius XI. This substitution altered its theological content, diminishing the importance of the social reign of Christ and exchanging it for a "cosmic and eschatological Christ," in the words of the liturgical reformer Pierre Jounel.
The new placement, at the end of the liturgical year, gives the celebration a predominantly eschatological character. The kingship of Christ is presented as something that, although present "as in a mystery," will only be fully manifested at the end of time. The text denounces that this perspective "betrays a certain weakness in the face of the challenge of modern secularization, as well as a hesitation regarding a perceived 'triumphalism' of traditional Catholic social doctrine." In other words, the kingship of Christ becomes acceptable as long as its realization is postponed to the end of time and "does not impinge excessively on the current political and social order." The Kingdom of Our Lord ceases to be seen as "a leaven that enters and permeates history," to become a Deus ex machina at the end of time. The model is no longer King St. Louis IX but the Omega Point of Teilhard de Chardin.
This shift to an eschatological emphasis is not neutral; it is a concession to the spirit of the world, which hates Christ's claim over the temporal order. By postponing the Kingship of Christ to the future, the new liturgy implicitly accepts the sovereignty of man and the State in the present. This mentality is precisely what the organized forces of naturalism, such as Freemasonry and Jewish nationalism, have sought to impose since the French Revolution. Their goal is "to uproot completely the whole religious and political order of the world, which has been brought into existence by Christianity, and to replace it by another in harmony with their way of thinking" (Fahey, 1953, p. 34). The new feast, with its weakened theology, thus becomes an accomplice, albeit passively, to this project of secularization.
📜The Liturgical Evidence of Doctrinal Subversion
The most compelling proof of this paradigm shift is found in the changes made to the liturgy of the day itself. The text details how direct references to the kingship of Christ over States and rulers were systematically suppressed. The Collect of the 1925 Mass asked God that "all the families of the nations, torn asunder by the wound of sin, may be subjected to his most loving rule." The 1969 version, which replaces it, radically departs from this request, praying that "all creation, freed from slavery, may render homage to your majesty and unceasingly proclaim your praise." The emphasis shifts from the social and political to the cosmic and generic.
The subversion becomes even more blatant in the Liturgy of the Hours, where entire verses of the hymn Te Saeculorum Principem were simply removed. The eliminated verses were those that explicitly asked: "May the rulers of the nations exalt You with public honor; may governors and judges worship You, may laws and arts express You." Likewise, the request for "our fatherland and our homes" to submit to His "sweet rule" was removed. These omissions are not accidental; they constitute, according to the text, a "silent denial of the kingship of Christ over nations, peoples, and rulers."
The systematic removal of these prayers is irrefutable proof that the liturgical change was, in fact, a doctrinal change. By eliminating the explicit call for the submission of civil authorities and social structures to Christ the King, the new liturgy reflects the liberal mentality that Pope Pius XI condemned, in which "the religion of Christ was put on the same level as false religions and placed ignominiously in the same category with them" (Fahey, 1953, p. 11). The Church, in her public prayer, has ceased to confront the world with the integral truth of Christ's Kingship, opting instead for harmless and vague language that does not challenge the secular status quo. This is the triumph of naturalism within the sanctuary itself.
📉The Causes and Consequences of the Dethronement of Christ
The text attributes these changes to the fact that the "apparent 'integralism' of Pope Pius XI had become an embarrassment" to progressive figures like Montini (Paul VI) and Bugnini. They had embraced the philosophy of secularism and wanted to ensure that the liturgy did not celebrate Christ's authority over the socio-political order. The result was the promotion of a Christ who is king of the "most micro level" (the heart) and the "most macro level" (the cosmos), but not of what is in between: "not king of culture, of society, of industry and commerce, of education, of civil government." For these intermediate spheres, the new creed became the impious cry: "we have no king but Caesar."
The consequences of this liturgical dethronement are seen as catastrophic, contributing to the "self-demolition of the Church on Earth." The distortion of social doctrine was reflected internally: the Church herself, as a consequence of documents like Dignitatis Humanae, became secularized, no longer able to "confess Christ unequivocally as the only Savior of humanity" and kneeling "before presidents and parliaments." The original feast of Pius XI, still celebrated in the authentic Roman Rite, proclaims the full truth of the Social Doctrine of the Church, while the reorganized feast that replaced it subverts that same truth. It is concluded that vitality in the Church today is found where the traditional rites have been preserved, and that the original feast of Christ the King in October has become the "titular feast... of the cultural and political Reconquista now in its beginnings."
The "self-demolition" mentioned is the logical and inevitable consequence of social apostasy. A nation, or even the visible structure of the Church, that refuses to submit to Christ the King, gives itself over to chaos and disorder. The weakness of the modern Church in the face of secularism is the direct result of having abandoned its mission to shape society according to the Divine Plan. In so doing, it not only fails to convert the world but also becomes vulnerable to infiltration by the naturalistic forces that seek its destruction. The dethronement of Christ in the liturgy is the symptom of a deeper disease: the loss of faith in the Church's supernatural mission to be "mistress and guide of all other societies" (Fahey, 1953, p. 13). The only hope for restoration lies in a courageous return to the integral proclamation of the rights of Christ the King over every soul, every family, and every nation. The original October feast is, therefore, more than a date on the calendar; it is a battle standard for those who refuse to capitulate to the modern world.
📚References
Fahey, D. (1953). The Kingship of Christ and The Conversion of the Jewish Nation. Dublin: Regina Publications.