We Must Never Betray the Cause of Christ the King

by Thomas A. Droleskey

 

The headlines of the Wednesday, October 24, 2007, issues of The New York Daily News and The New York Post were as follows:

         

 

Yes, you see, Rudolph William Giuliani, the former Mayor of the City of New York (January 1, 1994-December 31, 2001), has committed baseball heresy: he, one of the foremost fans of the incarnation of all evil in the world, the New York Yankees, announced that he was going to root for the Boston Red Sox against the Colorado Rockies in the 103rd World Series.

The Boston Red Sox are, in case anyone who reads this site does not know this fact, the archrivals of the New York Yankees, having defeated the winners of twenty-six World's Championships this year for the championship of the American League's East Division, going on to defeat the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship series after falling behind three games to one to the Indians, thus winning the American League championship for the second time in four years, which is two times more than the Yankees have won that championship in the same amount of time. It was bad enough for Yankees' fans, who truly deserve to certainly endure a century of ignominy and defeat such as the Chicago Cubs have suffered since they won their last World's Championship in 1908, that their team was eliminated from the playoffs as they, the American League Wild Card winners, were defeated by the Cleveland Indians in four games in a best three of out five Division Series. It was also bad for them to see their longtime manager, Joseph Paul Torre, who started his managing career with the New York Mets in May of 1977 (serving as something as a mouthpiece for the then ownership by saying about team star and future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver, engaged in a bitter contract dispute with then Mets' Chairman of the Board M. Donald Grant and about to traded to the Cincinnati Reds on June 15, 1977, "I don't want him on my team. He's an irritant."), when Torre, whose Yankees teams won Four World's Championships and six American League pennants in twelve seasons, decided not to accept a contract renewal offer that he termed insulting. It was treasonous for the self-proclaimed "Yankee-Fan-in-Chief," Rudolph William Giuliani, to say that he was going to root for the hated Boston Red Sox, whom the Yankees used to beat like a drum until 2004--and still have managed to do well against them in each of the subsequent three regular seasons, coming with two games of pulling off what would have been a remarkable comeback to win their division against the Red Sox.

Believe me, some New Yorkers are very, very angry with Rudolph Giuliani over his "betrayal" of the Yankees. Giuliani, who is running for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination and is, at least at present, the leader of pack according to every public opinion poll taken of this very fluid race, is seen as positioning himself to curry favor with voters in what is called "Red Sox Nation," especially New Hampshire and Massachusetts, in order to peel away a few voters from former Massachusetts Governor Mitt "You Flip This Way, Rudy, I'll Flip That Way on Abortion" Romney. Giuliani explained that he is an American League fan, that he would always root for an American League team in the World Series against the National League, adding that he might root for the Mets out of loyalty to New York if they were not in the World Series. This is, to be honest, yet another calculated remark designed not to alienate Mets' fans who might vote in the New York primary early next year (or is it later this year?--the dates of various state primaries and caucuses keep changing, don't they?). Giuliani forgets that he uttered the following line shortly after being sworn in as Mayor of the City of New York on January 1, 1994, "I hate the Mets." No, Rudy, we don't forget such things. It has galled him no end to have to wear Mets' caps when he's attended games at William A. Shea Municipal Stadium other than those in which the Yankees have been the Mets' opponent (such as in the annual home-and-home interleague Subway Series of the regular season, which began in 1998, a year after the Mets first played the Yankees at Yankee Stadium without a return visit to Shea Stadium by the Bronx Bombers, and the 2000 World Series, whose tragic ending after five games prompted me to sing "Lift High the Cross" as I walked out of Shea Stadium on Thursday, October 26, 2000).

Treason? Surely, some of the anger about Giuliani's rooting for the Boston Red Sox in the current World Series is in jest. However, some of it is for real. It is quite a telling commentary the world in which we live in which voters, many of whom in New York and the New England states are baptized Catholics, are moved to some sense of an emotional reaction, even if in jest, to Rudolph Giuliani's support for the Boston Red Sox and could not care less about the way he which he had sold out innocent preborn children when he accepted a cash donation from and the endorsement of the Liberal Party of the State of New York in his first campaign for Mayor of the City of New York in 1989 against then City Clerk David N. Dinkins in exchange for supporting the "right" of a woman to kill her preborn baby. Rudolph Giuliani betrayed his Catholic Faith. There was next-to-no outrage over this, save for the reaction of some members of the Right to Life Party of the State of New York and some members of the Conservative Party of the State of New York.

Even John "Cardinal" O'Connor, the conciliar "Archbishop" of New York from March 19, 1984, to May 3, 2000, who gained international fame when denouncing the "I'm personally opposed to abortion but can't impose my own views on the majority of the people" approaches to baby-killing under cover of law taken by such Democrat Party luminaries as then Governor Mario Matthew Cuomo, who was Governor of the State of New York from January 1, 1983, to December 31, 1994. O'Connor's denunciation of Cuomo began before he was "installed" as the conciliar archbishop of New York when he told WNBC-TV's Gabe Pressman, who is, evidently, still covering the political beat for Channel Four in New York City, after fifty-three years of doing so, that he, O'Connor, was "sick and tired" of those who say that they are "personally opposed" to abortion. O'Connor deliberately snubbed Cuomo at his installation "Mass" at Saint Patrick's Cathedral on the Feast of Saint Joseph in 1984. O'Connor did not mention him in any of his extended--and frequently jocular--remarks about various public officials, recognizing then City of New York Mayor Edward Irving Koch, United States Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, also a Catholic pro-abort member of the Democrat Party, the recently confirmed first United States Ambassador to the Holy See, William Wilson, and the Mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, whose name escapes me at this time, the see city of the diocese that was headed by O'Connor for about eight months before he was transferred by Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II to serve as the replacement for the late Terence "Cardinal" Cooke. Cuomo was snubbed completely. He knew it! I know it! I was there. I saw Cuomo pass by me in a huff of rage as the dignitaries" processed out of the nave of the Cathedral by way of the right transept to the side--and partitioned off from--the Novus Ordo altar. Cuomo was steaming. He was livid. He knew that he had been sent a "message" by then "Archbishop" O'Connor.

There was no such "message" ever sent to Rudolph Giuliani by "Cardinal" O'Connor, who was a true conciliarist, going so far as to tell a meeting of B'Nai Brith in February of 1998 that "Judaism and Catholicism are meant to co-exist side-by-side" until the end of time, which was ten months before he told a reporter for ABC-TV's Nightline that "God was smiling" on a Catholic man's conversion to Talmudic Judaism. Giuliani received a "free pass" from O'Connor, as he has received one ever since from Edward "Cardinal" Egan, O'Connor's "successor" as the conciliar "archbishop" of New York. Similarly, Giuliani's fellow Catholic Republican pro-abort, former Governor George Pataki (who was Governor of the State of New York from January 1, 1995, to December 31, 2006), was given a free pass by O'Connor and Egan, who went so far in 2001 as to say while he would welcome the day that Pataki changed his mind about abortion it was, nevertheless Pataki's "right as an American" to support contraception and abortion (see: Nothing But an American Right.)

Some conciliar "bishops" with the reputation of being "conservative," therefore, have enabled pro-abortion Catholic candidates for elected office and/or office-holders affiliated with the Republican Party in the same Americanist spirit exhibited by those "liberal" conciliar" bishops who have indemnified pro-abortion Catholic candidates for elected office and/or office-holders affiliated with the Democrat Party. The cycle of betrayal of Christ the King, begun with the first bishop and archbishop of Baltimore, John Carroll, who did not believe that it was necessary to seek the conversion of the the newly founded United States of America to the Catholic Faith, believing that the Constitution of the United States of America adequately protected the right of Catholics to worship freely that was denied to their ancestors with such fierce violence in the British isles, which, of course, includes Ireland.

This was, as has been pointed out on this site many times before, a diabolical trap into which John Carroll and other early American prelates, and into which their successors, both in the Catholic Church and in the counterfeit church of conciliarism, fell and have fallen repeatedly. That is, the devil raised up mean, bloodthirsty Protestants to make "tolerant" Protestants and "Freemasons" seem "good" by comparison. It's the same trick the adversary keeps using on us today, raising up "greater evils" (the Clintons) to make supposedly "lesser evils" (anyone by comparison, including out-and-out pro-aborts such as Giuliani--look "better" by comparison). Caught in the diabolical Americanist trap that makes no room for the Social Reign of Christ the King and for Mary our Immaculate Queen, most Catholics in the United States of America think and act according to the naturalist precepts of the founding of the nation, preferring to believing in myths ("we are a 'Christian' nation, founded on 'Judeo-Christian' principles") rather than to accept the simple, immutable, universal and eternally-binding truth of the Catholic Church that she must be recognized by the civil state and accorded the favor and protection of the laws.

Although A Catechism of the Social Reign of Christ the King and Make That Judeo-Masonic Humanism, Thank You, among so many other articles on this site, contain a summary of the Catholic Church's teaching on the Social Reign of Christ the King, making distinctions between knowing and promoting the Church's immutable Social Teaching on the necessity of the confessionally Catholic state and dealing with the practical realities of the situation of the world in which we live, it is always necessary, especially on this day, the eighty-second celebration Feast of the Universal Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which was instituted by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical letter Quas Primas, December 11, 1925, to review a few basic facts so as to remind ourselves that we must plant the seeds for the Social Reign of Christ the King in our own homes with our own children and grandchildren (yes, most people my age who are married have grandchildren). This is how the first Christendom was built as the Apostles and the other early Catholic missionaries sought the unconditional conversion of all peoples and all nations to the true Faith, outside of which there is no salvation. This is how we must plant the seeds for the restoration of Christendom as the fruit of the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, letting the seeds fall where they will and being unconcerned about any visible, tangible results made known to us during our own lifetimes.

The Apostles and those who followed them in the first three centuries of the Catholic Church, for instance, did not see the flowering of the Christ-centered world of Christendom with their own eyes. That world of Christendom was never perfectly established or was characterized by Catholic rulers and subjects who kept the moral law well or who obeyed the precepts of the Holy Faith with promptness. However, the world of Christendom, which grew organically in Europe during the First Millennium and into the early part of the Second Millennium before flowering during the High Middle Ages of the Thirteenth Century before being eclipsed by the secularizing tendencies of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, especially during the so-called Renaissance, which would help to pave the way for the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King wrought by the Protestant Revolt and cemented by the rise of Judeo-Masonry and all of other inter-related secular political ideologies that have sought to substitute themselves for the true Faith.

Popes Pius XI and Pius XII discussed the imperfections and strengths of Christendom in their respective first encyclical letters, separated by just about seventeen years:

When, therefore, governments and nations follow in all their activities, whether they be national or international, the dictates of conscience grounded in the teachings, precepts, and example of Jesus Christ, and which are binding on each and every individual, then only can we have faith in one another's word and trust in the peaceful solution of the difficulties and controversies which may grow out of differences in point of view or from clash of interests. An attempt in this direction has already and is now being made; its results, however, are almost negligible and, especially so, as far as they can be said to affect those major questions which divide seriously and serve to arouse nations one against the other. No merely human institution of today can be as successful in devising a set of international laws which will be in harmony with world conditions as the Middle Ages were in the possession of that true League of Nations, Christianity. It cannot be denied that in the Middle Ages this law was often violated; still it always existed as an ideal, according to which one might judge the acts of nations, and a beacon light calling those who had lost their way back to the safe road.

There exists an institution able to safeguard the sanctity of the law of nations. This institution is a part of every nation; at the same time it is above all nations. She enjoys, too, the highest authority, the fullness of the teaching power of the Apostles. Such an institution is the Church of Christ. She alone is adapted to do this great work, for she is not only divinely commissioned to lead mankind, but moreover, because of her very make-up and the constitution which she possesses, by reason of her age-old traditions and her great prestige, which has not been lessened but has been greatly increased since the close of the War, cannot but succeed in such a venture where others assuredly will fail.

It is apparent from these considerations that true peace, the peace of Christ, is impossible unless we are willing and ready to accept the fundamental principles of Christianity, unless we are willing to observe the teachings and obey the law of Christ, both in public and private life. If this were done, then society being placed at last on a sound foundation, the Church would be able, in the exercise of its divinely given ministry and by means of the teaching authority which results therefrom, to protect all the rights of God over men and nations.(Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)

The denial of the fundamentals of morality had its origin, in Europe, in the abandonment of that Christian teaching of which the Chair of Peter is the depository and exponent. That teaching had once given spiritual cohesion to a Europe which, educated, ennobled and civilized by the Cross, had reached such a degree of civil progress as to become the teacher of other peoples, of other continents. But, cut off from the infallible teaching authority of the Church, not a few separated brethren have gone so far as to overthrow the central dogma of Christianity, the Divinity of the Savior, and have hastened thereby the progress of spiritual decay.

The Holy Gospel narrates that when Jesus was crucified "there was darkness over the whole earth" (Matthew xxvii. 45); a terrifying symbol of what happened and what still happens spiritually wherever incredulity, blind and proud of itself, has succeeded in excluding Christ from modern life, especially from public life, and has undermined faith in God as well as faith in Christ. The consequence is that the moral values by which in other times public and private conduct was gauged have fallen into disuse; and the much vaunted civilization of society, which has made ever more rapid progress, withdrawing man, the family and the State from the beneficent and regenerating effects of the idea of God and the teaching of the Church, has caused to reappear, in regions in which for many centuries shone the splendors of Christian civilization, in a manner ever clearer, ever more distinct, ever more distressing, the signs of a corrupt and corrupting paganism: "There was darkness when they crucified Jesus" (Roman Breviary, Good Friday, Response Five).

Many perhaps, while abandoning the teaching of Christ, were not fully conscious of being led astray by a mirage of glittering phrases, which proclaimed such estrangement as an escape from the slavery in which they were before held; nor did they then foresee the bitter consequences of bartering the truth that sets free, for error which enslaves. They did not realize that, in renouncing the infinitely wise and paternal laws of God, and the unifying and elevating doctrines of Christ's love, they were resigning themselves to the whim of a poor, fickle human wisdom; they spoke of progress, when they were going back; of being raised, when they groveled; of arriving at man's estate, when they stooped to servility. They did not perceive the inability of all human effort to replace the law of Christ by anything equal to it; "they became vain in their thoughts" (Romans i. 21).

With the weakening of faith in God and in Jesus Christ, and the darkening in men's minds of the light of moral principles, there disappeared the indispensable foundation of the stability and quiet of that internal and external, private and public order, which alone can support and safeguard the prosperity of States.

It is true that even when Europe had a cohesion of brotherhood through identical ideals gathered from Christian preaching, she was not free from divisions, convulsions and wars which laid her waste; but perhaps they never felt the intense pessimism of today as to the possibility of settling them, for they had then an effective moral sense of the just and of the unjust, of the lawful and of the unlawful, which, by restraining outbreaks of passion, left the way open to an honorable settlement. In Our days, on the contrary, dissensions come not only from the surge of rebellious passion, but also from a deep spiritual crisis which has overthrown the sound principles of private and public morality. (Pope Pius XII, Summi Pontificatus, October 10, 1939.)

 

Pope Leo XIII had summarized these points most cogently in Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885:

There was once a time when States were governed by the philosophy of the Gospel. Then it was that the power and divine virtue of Christian wisdom had diffused itself throughout the laws, institutions, and morals of the people, permeating all ranks and relations of civil society. Then, too, the religion instituted by Jesus Christ, established firmly in befitting dignity, flourished everywhere, by the favor of princes and the legitimate protection of magistrates; and Church and State were happily united in concord and friendly interchange of good offices. The State, constituted in this wise, bore fruits important beyond all expectation, whose remembrance is still, and always will be, in renown, witnessed to as they are by countless proofs which can never be blotted out or ever obscured by any craft of any enemies. Christian Europe has subdued barbarous nations, and changed them from a savage to a civilized condition, from superstition to true worship. It victoriously rolled back the tide of Mohammedan conquest; retained the headship of civilization; stood forth in the front rank as the leader and teacher of all, in every branch of national culture; bestowed on the world the gift of true and many-sided liberty; and most wisely founded very numerous institutions for the solace of human suffering. And if we inquire how it was able to bring about so altered a condition of things, the answer is -- beyond all question, in large measure, through religion, under whose auspices so many great undertakings were set on foot, through whose aid they were brought to completion.

A similar state of things would certainly have continued had the agreement of the two powers been lasting. More important results even might have been justly looked for, had obedience waited upon the authority, teaching, and counsels of the Church, and had this submission been specially marked by greater and more unswerving loyalty. For that should be regarded in the light of an ever-changeless law which Ivo of Chartres wrote to Pope Paschal II: "When kingdom and priesthood are at one, in complete accord, the world is well ruled, and the Church flourishes, and brings forth abundant fruit. But when they are at variance, not only smaller interests prosper not, but even things of greatest moment fall into deplorable decay."

But that harmful and deplorable passion for innovation which was aroused in the sixteenth century threw first of all into confusion the Christian religion, and next, by natural sequence, invaded the precincts of philosophy, whence it spread amongst all classes of society. From this source, as from a fountain-head, burst forth all those later tenets of unbridled license which, in the midst of the terrible upheavals of the last century, were wildly conceived and boldly proclaimed as the principles and foundation of that new conception of law which was not merely previously unknown, but was at variance on many points with not only the Christian, but even the natural law. (Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885.)

 

The great exemplars of Christendom (Saints Edward the Confessor, Wenceslaus, Henry, Louis IX, Casimir, Stephen of Hungary, Elizabeth of Hungary--so many countless others, both heralded and unheralded but not raised to the altars of the Church, such as King Jan Sobieski of Poland and King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Aragon and Gabriel Garcia Moreno of Ecuador) and of the sacred rights of Christ the King on the battlefield, including Saint Joan of Arc, each understood that he or she had a solemn obligation to foster those conditions in his or her realm wherein his or her subjects could best sanctify and to save their souls as members of the Catholic Church. Every single one of them understood that they had to pursue holiness in their own lives by cooperating with the graces won for them by the shedding of every single drop Our Blessed Lord and Saviour's Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flowed into their hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces. Many of the exemplars of Christendom, such as Saint Louis IX and Jan Sobieski, were willing to die under the banner of Christ the King rather than to let heresy or infidelity spread to their realms.

The cause of the Social Reign of Christ the King was upheld by pope after pope in the wake of the events that followed in the wake of the Protestant Revolt and the rise of Judeo-Masonry, both of which combined to help bring about the modern, religiously indifferentist and anti-Incarnational civil state. Pope Leo XIII raised the standard of Christ the King high in his encyclical letters, explaining in Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900, that the societies need the guidance of the Catholic Church in all that pertains to the good of souls. Pope Leo made it abundantly clear that the Natural Law alone, which can be understood authentically only by a submission to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, is insufficient to provide social order, which has provided us with a wonderful rebuttal to the contention of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, relying upon the work of the late "integral humanist" named Jacques Maritain, that the Natural Law alone can suffice for such social order without seeking the restoration of Christendom:

From this it may clearly be seen what consequences are to be expected from that false pride which, rejecting our Saviour's Kingship, places man at the summit of all things and declares that human nature must rule supreme. And yet, this supreme rule can neither be attained nor even defined. The rule of Jesus Christ derives its form and its power from Divine Love: a holy and orderly charity is both its foundation and its crown. Its necessary consequences are the strict fulfilment of duty, respect of mutual rights, the estimation of the things of heaven above those of earth, the preference of the love of God to all things. But this supremacy of man, which openly rejects Christ, or at least ignores Him, is entirely founded upon selfishness, knowing neither charity nor selfdevotion. Man may indeed be king, through Jesus Christ: but only on condition that he first of all obey God, and diligently seek his rule of life in God's law. By the law of Christ we mean not only the natural precepts of morality and the Ancient Law, all of which Jesus Christ has perfected and crowned by His declaration, explanation and sanction; but also the rest of His doctrine and His own peculiar institutions. Of these the chief is His Church. Indeed whatsoever things Christ has instituted are most fully contained in His Church. Moreover, He willed to perpetuate the office assigned to Him by His Father by means of the ministry of the Church so gloriously founded by Himself. On the one hand He confided to her all the means of men's salvation, on the other He most solemnly commanded men to be subject to her and to obey her diligently, and to follow her even as Himself: "He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me" (Luke x, 16). Wherefore the law of Christ must be sought in the Church. Christ is man's "Way"; the Church also is his "Way"-Christ of Himself and by His very nature, the Church by His commission and the communication of His power. Hence all who would find salvation apart from the Church, are led astray and strive in vain.

As with individuals, so with nations. These, too, must necessarily tend to ruin if they go astray from "The Way." The Son of God, the Creator and Redeemer of mankind, is King and Lord of the earth, and holds supreme dominion over men, both individually and collectively. "And He gave Him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve Him" (Daniel vii., 14). "I am appointed King by Him . . . I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession" (Psalm ii., 6, 8). Therefore the law of Christ ought to prevail in human society and be the guide and teacher of public as well as of private life. Since this is so by divine decree, and no man may with impunity contravene it, it is an evil thing for the common weal wherever Christianity does not hold the place that belongs to it. When Jesus Christ is absent, human reason fails, being bereft of its chief protection and light, and the very end is lost sight of, for which, under God's providence, human society has been built up. This end is the obtaining by the members of society of natural good through the aid of civil unity, though always in harmony with the perfect and eternal good which is above nature. But when men's minds are clouded, both rulers and ruled go astray, for they have no safe line to follow nor end to aim at.

Just as it is the height of misfortune to go astray from the "Way," so is it to abandon the "Truth." Christ Himself is the first, absolute and essential "Truth," inasmuch as He is the Word of God, consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father, He and the Father being One. "I am the Way and the Truth." Wherefore if the Truth be sought by the human intellect, it must first of all submit it to Jesus Christ, and securely rest upon His teaching, since therein Truth itself speaketh. There are innumerable and extensive fields of thought, properly belonging to the human mind, in which it may have free scope for its investigations and speculations, and that not only agreeably to its nature, but even by a necessity of its nature. But what is unlawful and unnatural is that the human mind should refuse to be restricted within its proper limits, and, throwing aside its becoming modesty, should refuse to acknowledge Christ's teaching. This teaching, upon which our salvation depends, is almost entirely about God and the things of God. No human wisdom has invented it, but the Son of God hath received and drunk it in entirely from His Father: "The words which thou gavest me, I have given to them" john xvii., 8). Hence this teaching necessarily embraces many subjects which are not indeed contrary to reasonfor that would be an impossibility-but so exalted that we can no more attain them by our own reasoning than we can comprehend God as He is in Himself. If there be so many things hidden and veiled by nature, which no human ingenuity can explain, and yet which no man in his senses can doubt, it would be an abuse of liberty to refuse to accept those which are entirely above nature, because their essence cannot be discovered. To reject dogma is simply to deny Christianity. Our intellect must bow humbly and reverently "unto the obedience of Christ," so that it be held captive by His divinity and authority: "bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians x., 5). Such obedience Christ requires, and justly so. For He is God, and as such holds supreme dominion over man's intellect as well as over his will. By obeying Christ with his intellect man by no means acts in a servile manner, but in complete accordance with his reason and his natural dignity. For by his will he yields, not to the authority of any man, but to that of God, the author of his being, and the first principle to Whom he is subject by the very law of his nature. He does not suffer himself to be forced by the theories of any human teacher, but by the eternal and unchangeable truth. Hence he attains at one and the same time the natural good of the intellect and his own liberty. For the truth which proceeds from the teaching of Christ clearly demonstrates the real nature and value of every being; and man, being endowed with this knowledge, if he but obey the truth as perceived, will make all things subject to himself, not himself to them; his appetites to his reason, not his reason to his appetites. Thus the slavery of sin and falsehood will be shaken off, and the most perfect liberty attained: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" john viii., 32). It is, then, evident that those whose intellect rejects the yoke of Christ are obstinately striving against God. Having shaken off God's authority, they are by no means freer, for they will fall beneath some human sway. They are sure to choose someone whom they will listen to, obey, and follow as their guide. Moreover, they withdraw their intellect from the communication of divine truths, and thus limit it within a narrower circle of knowledge, so that they are less fitted to succeed in the pursuit even of natural science. For there are in nature very many things whose apprehension or explanation is greatly aided by the light of divine truth. Not unfrequently, too, God, in order to chastise their pride, does not permit men to see the truth, and thus they are punished in the things wherein they sin. This is why we often see men of great intellectual power and erudition making the grossest blunders even in natural science.

It must therefore be clearly admitted that, in the life of a Christian, the intellect must be entirely subject to God's authority. And if, in this submission of reason to authority, our self-love, which is so strong, is restrained and made to suffer, this only proves the necessity to a Christian of long-suffering not only in will but also in intellect. We would remind those persons of this truth who desire a kind of Christianity such as they themselves have devised, whose precepts should be very mild, much more indulgent towards human nature, and requiring little if any hardships to be borne. They do not properly under stand the meaning of faith and Christian precepts. They do not see that the Cross meets us everywhere, the model of our life, the eternal standard of all who wish to follow Christ in reality and not merely in name.

God alone is Life. All other beings partake of life, but are not life. Christ, from all eternity and by His very nature, is "the Life," just as He is the Truth, because He is God of God. From Him, as from its most sacred source, all life pervades and ever will pervade creation. Whatever is, is by Him; whatever lives, lives by Him. For by the Word "all things were made; and without Him was made nothing that was made." This is true of the natural life; but, as We have sufficiently indicated above, we have a much higher and better life, won for us by Christ's mercy, that is to say, "the life of grace," whose happy consummation is "the life of glory," to which all our thoughts and actions ought to be directed. The whole object of Christian doctrine and morality is that "we being dead to sin, should live to justice" (I Peter ii., 24)-that is, to virtue and holiness. In this consists the moral life, with the certain hope of a happy eternity. This justice, in order to be advantageous to salvation, is nourished by Christian faith. "The just man liveth by faith" (Galatians iii., II). "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews xi., 6). Consequently Jesus Christ, the creator and preserver of faith, also preserves and nourishes our moral life. This He does chiefly by the ministry of His Church. To Her, in His wise and merciful counsel, He has entrusted certain agencies which engender the supernatural life, protect it, and revive it if it should fail. This generative and conservative power of the virtues that make for salvation is therefore lost, whenever morality is dissociated from divine faith. A system of morality based exclusively on human reason robs man of his highest dignity and lowers him from the supernatural to the merely natural life. Not but that man is able by the right use of reason to know and to obey certain principles of the natural law. But though he should know them all and keep them inviolate through life-and even this is impossible without the aid of the grace of our Redeemer-still it is vain for anyone without faith to promise himself eternal salvation. "If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth" john xv., 6). "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi., 16). We have but too much evidence of the value and result of a morality divorced from divine faith. How is it that, in spite of all the zeal for the welfare of the masses, nations are in such straits and even distress, and that the evil is daily on the increase? We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts. Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime.

So great is this struggle of the passions and so serious the dangers involved, that we must either anticipate ultimate ruin or seek for an efficient remedy. It is of course both right and necessary to punish malefactors, to educate the masses, and by legislation to prevent crime in every possible way: but all this is by no means sufficient. The salvation of the nations must be looked for higher. A power greater than human must be called in to teach men's hearts, awaken in them the sense of duty, and make them better. This is the power which once before saved the world from destruction when groaning under much more terrible evils. Once remove all impediments and allow the Christian spirit to revive and grow strong in a nation, and that nation will be healed. The strife between the classes and the masses will die away; mutual rights will be respected. If Christ be listened to, both rich and poor will do their duty. The former will realise that they must observe justice and charity, the latter self-restraint and moderation, if both are to be saved. Domestic life will be firmly established (by the salutary fear of God as the Lawgiver. In the same way the precepts of the natural law, which dictates respect for lawful authority and obedience to the laws, will exercise their influence over the people. Seditions and conspiracies will cease. Wherever Christianity rules over all without hindrance there the order established by Divine Providence is preserved, and both security and prosperity are the happy result. The common welfare, then, urgently demands a return to Him from whom we should never have gone astray; to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life,-and this on the part not only of individuals but of society as a whole. We must restore Christ to this His own rightful possession. All elements of the national life must be made to drink in the Life which proceedeth from Him- legislation, political institutions, education, marriage and family life, capital and labour. Everyone must see that the very growth of civilisation which is so ardently desired depends greatly upon this, since it is fed and grows not so much by material wealth and prosperity, as by the spiritual qualities of morality and virtue. (Pope Leo XIII, Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900.)

 

Anyone who thinks that this teaching is "obsolete" is a fool in every sense of that word.

Pope Saint Pius X wrote in Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910, in another prophetic slap at Modernity and Modernism, that there is only way to restore a true civilization, by praying and working the restoration of all things in Christ, that is, the Catholic City, something you do not hear at all from the scions of conciliarism, who have betrayed the cause of Christ the King just as much as the pro-abortion politicians they sometimes criticize and sometimes praise as they offer them what passes for "Holy Communion" in the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service:

No, Venerable Brethren, We must repeat with the utmost energy in these times of social and intellectual anarchy when everyone takes it upon himself to teach as a teacher and lawmaker - the City cannot be built otherwise than as God has built it; society cannot be setup unless the Church lays the foundations and supervises the work; no, civilization is not something yet to be found, nor is the New City to be built on hazy notions; it has been in existence and still is: it is Christian civilization, it is the Catholic City. It has only to be set up and restored continually against the unremitting attacks of insane dreamers, rebels and miscreants. omnia instaurare in Christo

 

Pope Pius XI, whose entire pontificate was dedicated to "The Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ" established the very feast that we celebrate today on the last Sunday of October, signifying that just as there are four weeks left in the liturgical year so is there left before Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ comes in glory to judge the living and the dead on the Last Day. He is meant to reign as King of men and nations now, in this life, not merely be seen as all as the King on the Last Day. Annibale Bugnini and his compatriots who planned the Novus Ordo service moved the feast of Christ the King from the last Sunday of October to the last Sunday of the liturgical year, thereby shifting the emphasis away from the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ, which is never mentioned by the conciliarists, to the eschatological Kingship of Our Lord at the end of time. Pope Pius XI would have blanched to have known how the Modernist enemies of the Catholic Faith and the Social Reign of Christ the King have made their "reconciliation" with the anti-Incarnational principles of 1787 and 1789:

Consider, once again, if you will, these stirring words from Pope Pius XI's Quas Primas, December 11, 1925:

This kingdom is spiritual and is concerned with spiritual things. That this is so the above quotations from Scripture amply prove, and Christ by his own action confirms it. On many occasions, when the Jews and even the Apostles wrongly supposed that the Messiah would restore the liberties and the kingdom of Israel, he repelled and denied such a suggestion. When the populace thronged around him in admiration and would have acclaimed him King, he shrank from the honor and sought safety in flight. Before the Roman magistrate he declared that his kingdom was not of this world. The gospels present this kingdom as one which men prepare to enter by penance, and cannot actually enter except by faith and by baptism, which, though an external rite, signifies and produces an interior regeneration. This kingdom is opposed to none other than to that of Satan and to the power of darkness. It demands of its subjects a spirit of detachment from riches and earthly things, and a spirit of gentleness. They must hunger and thirst after justice, and more than this, they must deny themselves and carry the cross.

Christ as our Redeemer purchased the Church at the price of his own blood; as priest he offered himself, and continues to offer himself as a victim for our sins. Is it not evident, then, that his kingly dignity partakes in a manner of both these offices?

It would be a grave error, on the other hand, to say that Christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs, since, by virtue of the absolute empire over all creatures committed to him by the Father, all things are in his power. Nevertheless, during his life on earth he refrained from the exercise of such authority, and although he himself disdained to possess or to care for earthly goods, he did not, nor does he today, interfere with those who possess them. Non eripit mortalia qui regna dat caelestia.

Thus the empire of our Redeemer embraces all men. To use the words of Our immortal predecessor, Pope Leo XIII: "His empire includes not only Catholic nations, not only baptized persons who, though of right belonging to the Church, have been led astray by error, or have been cut off from her by schism, but also all those who are outside the Christian faith; so that truly the whole of mankind is subject to the power of Jesus Christ."[28] Nor is there any difference in this matter between the individual and the family or the State; for all men, whether collectively or individually, are under the dominion of Christ. In him is the salvation of the individual, in him is the salvation of society. "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved."[29] He is the author of happiness and true prosperity for every man and for every nation. "For a nation is happy when its citizens are happy. What else is a nation but a number of men living in concord?" If, therefore, the rulers of nations wish to preserve their authority, to promote and increase the prosperity of their countries, they will not neglect the public duty of reverence and obedience to the rule of Christ. What We said at the beginning of Our Pontificate concerning the decline of public authority, and the lack of respect for the same, is equally true at the present day. "With God and Jesus Christ," we said, "excluded from political life, with authority derived not from God but from man, the very basis of that authority has been taken away, because the chief reason of the distinction between ruler and subject has been eliminated. The result is that human society is tottering to its fall, because it has no longer a secure and solid foundation."

When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony. Our Lord's regal office invests the human authority of princes and rulers with a religious significance; it ennobles the citizen's duty of obedience. It is for this reason that St. Paul, while bidding wives revere Christ in their husbands, and slaves respect Christ in their masters, warns them to give obedience to them not as men, but as the vicegerents of Christ; for it is not meet that men redeemed by Christ should serve their fellow-men. "You are bought with a price; be not made the bond-slaves of men."[32] If princes and magistrates duly elected are filled with the persuasion that they rule, not by their own right, but by the mandate and in the place of the Divine King, they will exercise their authority piously and wisely, and they will make laws and administer them, having in view the common good and also the human dignity of their subjects. The result will be a stable peace and tranquillity, for there will be no longer any cause of discontent. Men will see in their king or in their rulers men like themselves, perhaps unworthy or open to criticism, but they will not on that account refuse obedience if they see reflected in them the authority of Christ God and Man. Peace and harmony, too, will result; for with the spread and the universal extent of the kingdom of Christ men will become more and more conscious of the link that binds them together, and thus many conflicts will be either prevented entirely or at least their bitterness will be diminished.

20. If the kingdom of Christ, then, receives, as it should, all nations under its way, there seems no reason why we should despair of seeing that peace which the King of Peace came to bring on earth -- he who came to reconcile all things, who came not to be ministered unto but to minister, who, though Lord of all, gave himself to us as a model of humility, and with his principal law united the precept of charity; who said also: "My yoke is sweet and my burden light." Oh, what happiness would be Ours if all men, individuals, families, and nations, would but let themselves be governed by Christ! "Then at length," to use the words addressed by our predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, twenty-five years ago to the bishops of the Universal Church, "then at length will many evils be cured; then will the law regain its former authority; peace with all its blessings be restored. Men will sheathe their swords and lay down their arms when all freely acknowledge and obey the authority of Christ, and every tongue confesses that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father."

That these blessings may be abundant and lasting in Christian society, it is necessary that the kingship of our Savior should be as widely as possible recognized and understood, and to the end nothing would serve better than the institution of a special feast in honor of the Kingship of Christ. For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year -- in fact, forever. The church's teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man's nature. Man is composed of body and soul, and he needs these external festivities so that the sacred rites, in all their beauty and variety, may stimulate him to drink more deeply of the fountain of God's teaching, that he may make it a part of himself, and use it with profit for his spiritual life.

History, in fact, tells us that in the course of ages these festivals have been instituted one after another according as the needs or the advantage of the people of Christ seemed to demand: as when they needed strength to face a common danger, when they were attacked by insidious heresies, when they needed to be urged to the pious consideration of some mystery of faith or of some divine blessing. Thus in the earliest days of the Christian era, when the people of Christ were suffering cruel persecution, the cult of the martyrs was begun in order, says St. Augustine, "that the feasts of the martyrs might incite men to martyrdom."[34] The liturgical honors paid to confessors, virgins and widows produced wonderful results in an increased zest for virtue, necessary even in times of peace. But more fruitful still were the feasts instituted in honor of the Blessed Virgin. As a result of these men grew not only in their devotion to the Mother of God as an ever-present advocate, but also in their love of her as a mother bequeathed to them by their Redeemer. Not least among the blessings which have resulted from the public and legitimate honor paid to the Blessed Virgin and the saints is the perfect and perpetual immunity of the Church from error and heresy. We may well admire in this the admirable wisdom of the Providence of God, who, ever bringing good out of evil, has from time to time suffered the faith and piety of men to grow weak, and allowed Catholic truth to be attacked by false doctrines, but always with the result that truth has afterwards shone out with greater splendor, and that men's faith, aroused from its lethargy, has shown itself more vigorous than before.

The festivals that have been introduced into the liturgy in more recent years have had a similar origin, and have been attended with similar results. When reverence and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament had grown cold, the feast of Corpus Christi was instituted, so that by means of solemn processions and prayer of eight days' duration, men might be brought once more to render public homage to Christ. So, too, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was instituted at a time when men were oppressed by the sad and gloomy severity of Jansenism, which had made their hearts grow cold, and shut them out from the love of God and the hope of salvation.

If We ordain that the whole Catholic world shall revere Christ as King, We shall minister to the need of the present day, and at the same time provide an excellent remedy for the plague which now infects society. We refer to the plague of anti-clericalism, its errors and impious activities. This evil spirit, as you are well aware, Venerable Brethren, has not come into being in one day; it has long lurked beneath the surface. The empire of Christ over all nations was rejected. The right which the Church has from Christ himself, to teach mankind, to make laws, to govern peoples in all that pertains to their eternal salvation, that right was denied. Then gradually the religion of Christ came to be likened to false religions and to be placed ignominiously on the same level with them. It was then put under the power of the state and tolerated more or less at the whim of princes and rulers. Some men went even further, and wished to set up in the place of God's religion a natural religion consisting in some instinctive affection of the heart. There were even some nations who thought they could dispense with God, and that their religion should consist in impiety and the neglect of God. The rebellion of individuals and states against the authority of Christ has produced deplorable consequences. We lamented these in the Encyclical Ubi arcano; we lament them today: the seeds of discord sown far and wide; those bitter enmities and rivalries between nations, which still hinder so much the cause of peace; that insatiable greed which is so often hidden under a pretense of public spirit and patriotism, and gives rise to so many private quarrels; a blind and immoderate selfishness, making men seek nothing but their own comfort and advantage, and measure everything by these; no peace in the home, because men have forgotten or neglect their duty; the unity and stability of the family undermined; society in a word, shaken to its foundations and on the way to ruin. We firmly hope, however, that the feast of the Kingship of Christ, which in future will be yearly observed, may hasten the return of society to our loving Savior. It would be the duty of Catholics to do all they can to bring about this happy result. Many of these, however, have neither the station in society nor the authority which should belong to those who bear the torch of truth. This state of things may perhaps be attributed to a certain slowness and timidity in good people, who are reluctant to engage in conflict or oppose but a weak resistance; thus the enemies of the Church become bolder in their attacks. But if the faithful were generally to understand that it behooves them ever to fight courageously under the banner of Christ their King, then, fired with apostolic zeal, they would strive to win over to their Lord those hearts that are bitter and estranged from him, and would valiantly defend his rights.

 

Do we consider this to be our duty as Catholics? Have we helped to emboldened the cause of Christ the King by surrendering to the forces of naturalism  (and any of the naturalist ideologies that seek to "resolve" social problems in the belief that it is not necessary or desirable or possible to restore the Social Reign of Christ the King)? Do we seek to carry the banner of Christ the King high in our daily lives?

How can we lift this banner of Christ the King high in our daily lives? Oh, there are so many, many ways. Just a few will be offered for your consideration.

First, we must have our homes enthroned to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, giving our King and our Queen pride of place in our homes just as they must have pride of place in our own individual hearts, which should be as one with the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary by being consecrated to the former through the latter.

Second, we must pray our family Rosary on our knees (for those who are physically able) every day without fail. We have time to chat on cellular phones and to be obsessed with various games of one sort or another (oh, I read about what's going in the world, including baseball, but I don't watch any of the bread and circuses any more; as should be evidenced by my extensive knowledge of baseball demonstrated only in part earlier in this article, I've done far, far, far too much of that in my life, thank you, very much)? We have time to pray the family Rosary together. We also have time, at least once a week, to place ourselves as a family before the Blessed Sacrament in fervent prayer.

Third, we must, if at all possible, seek to place ourselves under the care of true bishops and true priests in the Catholic catacombs where no concessions whatsoever are made to conciliarism or to the nonexistent legitimacy of its shepherds who are apologists for the condemned thesis of the "separation of Church and State" and for the very Americanist principles that helped to shape Dignitatis Humanae. Just say no to the N.O. (Novus Ordo) and its embrace of interdenominationalism as the way to build the "better" world.

Fourth, study the encyclical letters of the true popes whose Social Teaching Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI believes has been "obsolete" the "particulars" contained therein. Christ or Chaos was established as a printed journal in 1996 to promote the Social Reign of Christ the King and the Immemorial Mass of Tradition, trying to make these encyclical letters more widely known, appreciated, understood and observed. Study these in your own family.

Fifth, think as a Catholic at all times. Stop believing that there is a "left" or a "right" politically. These are illusions of the devil, who wants to think that one set of naturalists is better than another. We are witnessing in the United States of America and the world the disastrous consequences of the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King. You do not need to pollute your mind with the mindless blather of talk radio or television. Concentrating on planting the seeds for the personal reign of Christ the King in our own souls and those of our family members, which means that those aspects of the popular culture that are inimical to our souls must not receive out patronage whatsoever (did Saint Francis of Assisi miss anything when he gave up the world to gain an eternal world?), we must remember these wonderful words of Pope Leo XIII, contained in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890:

The chief elements of this duty consist in professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine, and in propagating it to the utmost of our power. For, as is often said, with the greatest truth, there is nothing so hurtful to Christian wisdom as that it should not be known, since it possesses, when loyally received, inherent power to drive away error. So soon as Catholic truth is apprehended by a simple and unprejudiced soul, reason yields assent.

 

Finally, and this list is far from exhaustive, we must get ourselves and our family members to the Sacred Tribunal of Penance on a weekly basis so that we can be better able to see the world more clearly through the eyes of the True Faith rather than to view the Church through the eyes of the world, as has happened to so many Catholics in the United States of America as a result of the widespread failure, with only a few exceptions here and there, to preach the Social Reign of Christ the King before the dawning of the age of conciliarism in 1958.

Pope Pius XI explained why he was instituting the feast we celebrate this day, October 28, 2007:

Moreover, the annual and universal celebration of the feast of the Kingship of Christ will draw attention to the evils which anticlericalism has brought upon society in drawing men away from Christ, and will also do much to remedy them. While nations insult the beloved name of our Redeemer by suppressing all mention of it in their conferences and parliaments, we must all the more loudly proclaim his kingly dignity and power, all the more universally affirm his rights.

The way has been happily and providentially prepared for the celebration of this feast ever since the end of the last century. It is well known that this cult has been the subject of learned disquisitions in many books published in every part of the world, written in many different languages. The kingship and empire of Christ have been recognized in the pious custom, practiced by many families, of dedicating themselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; not only families have performed this act of dedication, but nations, too, and kingdoms. In fact, the whole of the human race was at the instance of Pope Leo XIII, in the Holy Year 1900, consecrated to the Divine Heart. It should be remarked also that much has been done for the recognition of Christ's authority over society by the frequent Eucharistic Congresses which are held in our age. These give an opportunity to the people of each diocese, district or nation, and to the whole world of coming together to venerate and adore Christ the King hidden under the Sacramental species. Thus by sermons preached at meetings and in churches, by public adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed and by solemn processions, men unite in paying homage to Christ, whom God has given them for their King. It is by a divine inspiration that the people of Christ bring forth Jesus from his silent hiding-place in the church, and carry him in triumph through the streets of the city, so that he whom men refused to receive when he came unto his own, may now receive in full his kingly rights. . . .

It is not necessary, Venerable Brethren, that We should explain to you at any length why We have decreed that this feast of the Kingship of Christ should be observed in addition to those other feasts in which his kingly dignity is already signified and celebrated. It will suffice to remark that although in all the feasts of our Lord the material object of worship is Christ, nevertheless their formal object is something quite distinct from his royal title and dignity. We have commanded its observance on a Sunday in order that not only the clergy may perform their duty by saying Mass and reciting the Office, but that the laity too, free from their daily tasks, may in a spirit of holy joy give ample testimony of their obedience and subjection to Christ. The last Sunday of October seemed the most convenient of all for this purpose, because it is at the end of the liturgical year, and thus the feast of the Kingship of Christ sets the crowning glory upon the mysteries of the life of Christ already commemorated during the year, and, before celebrating the triumph of all the Saints, we proclaim and extol the glory of him who triumphs in all the Saints and in all the Elect. Make it your duty and your task, Venerable Brethren, to see that sermons are preached to the people in every parish to teach them the meaning and the importance of this feast, that they may so order their lives as to be worthy of faithful and obedient subjects of the Divine King.

We would now, Venerable Brethren, in closing this letter, briefly enumerate the blessings which We hope and pray may accrue to the Church, to society, and to each one of the faithful, as a result of the public veneration of the Kingship of Christ.

When we pay honor to the princely dignity of Christ, men will doubtless be reminded that the Church, founded by Christ as a perfect society, has a natural and inalienable right to perfect freedom and immunity from the power of the state; and that in fulfilling the task committed to her by God of teaching, ruling, and guiding to eternal bliss those who belong to the kingdom of Christ, she cannot be subject to any external power. The State is bound to extend similar freedom to the orders and communities of religious of either sex, who give most valuable help to the Bishops of the Church by laboring for the extension and the establishment of the kingdom of Christ. By their sacred vows they fight against the threefold concupiscence of the world; by making profession of a more perfect life they render the holiness which her divine Founder willed should be a mark and characteristic of his Church more striking and more conspicuous in the eyes of all.

Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ. It will call to their minds the thought of the last judgment, wherein Christ, who has been cast out of public life, despised, neglected and ignored, will most severely avenge these insults; for his kingly dignity demands that the State should take account of the commandments of God and of Christian principles, both in making laws and in administering justice, and also in providing for the young a sound moral education.

The faithful, moreover, by meditating upon these truths, will gain much strength and courage, enabling them to form their lives after the true Christian ideal. If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God. If all these truths are presented to the faithful for their consideration, they will prove a powerful incentive to perfection. It is Our fervent desire, Venerable Brethren, that those who are without the fold may seek after and accept the sweet yoke of Christ, and that we, who by the mercy of God are of the household of the faith, may bear that yoke, not as a burden but with joy, with love, with devotion; that having lived our lives in accordance with the laws of God's kingdom, we may receive full measure of good fruit, and counted by Christ good and faithful servants, we may be rendered partakers of eternal bliss and glory with him in his heavenly kingdom.

 

Of what does the Social Kinship of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ entail? Well, this summary was provided in A Catechism of the Social Reign of Christ the King:

The Social Kingship of Jesus Christ may be defined as the right of the Catholic Church to see to it that the binding precepts of the Divine positive law and the natural law are the basis of the actions of civil governance and that those who exercise civil power keep in mind man’s last end, confessionally recognizing the Catholic Church as the true Church founded by God Himself and having the right to reprimand and place interdicts upon those who issue edicts and ordinances contrary to God’s laws.

 

Pope Saint Pius X provided the absolutely best summary of what the Social Reign of Christ the King in the passage, paragraph three, from Vehementer Nos, February 11, 1906, that has been quoted repeatedly on this site:

That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error. Based, as it is, on the principle that the State must not recognize any religious cult, it is in the first place guilty of a great injustice to God; for the Creator of man is also the Founder of human societies, and preserves their existence as He preserves our own. We owe Him, therefore, not only a private cult, but a public and social worship to honor Him. Besides, this thesis is an obvious negation of the supernatural order. It limits the action of the State to the pursuit of public prosperity during this life only, which is but the proximate object of political societies; and it occupies itself in no fashion (on the plea that this is foreign to it) with their ultimate object which is man's eternal happiness after this short life shall have run its course. But as the present order of things is temporary and subordinated to the conquest of man's supreme and absolute welfare, it follows that the civil power must not only place no obstacle in the way of this conquest, but must aid us in effecting it. The same thesis also upsets the order providentially established by God in the world, which demands a harmonious agreement between the two societies. Both of them, the civil and the religious society, although each exercises in its own sphere its authority over them. It follows necessarily that there are many things belonging to them in common in which both societies must have relations with one another. Remove the agreement between Church and State, and the result will be that from these common matters will spring the seeds of disputes which will become acute on both sides; it will become more difficult to see where the truth lies, and great confusion is certain to arise. Finally, this thesis inflicts great injury on society itself, for it cannot either prosper or last long when due place is not left for religion, which is the supreme rule and the sovereign mistress in all questions touching the rights and the duties of men. Hence the Roman Pontiffs have never ceased, as circumstances required, to refute and condemn the doctrine of the separation of Church and State. Our illustrious predecessor, Leo XIII, especially, has frequently and magnificently expounded Catholic teaching on the relations which should subsist between the two societies. "Between them," he says, "there must necessarily be a suitable union, which may not improperly be compared with that existing between body and soul.-"Quaedam intercedat necesse est ordinata colligatio (inter illas) quae quidem conjunctioni non immerito comparatur, per quam anima et corpus in homine copulantur." He proceeds: "Human societies cannot, without becoming criminal, act as if God did not exist or refuse to concern themselves with religion, as though it were something foreign to them, or of no purpose to them.... As for the Church, which has God Himself for its author, to exclude her from the active life of the nation, from the laws, the education of the young, the family, is to commit a great and pernicious error. -- "Civitates non possunt, citra scellus, gerere se tamquam si Deus omnino non esset, aut curam religionis velut alienam nihilque profuturam abjicere.... Ecclesiam vero, quam Deus ipse constituit, ab actione vitae excludere, a legibus, ab institutione adolescentium, a societate domestica, magnus et perniciousus est error.

 

The civil state has an obligation to pursue its own objectives in its own sphere of competency in light of man's Last End. It has an obligation, as Pope Saint Pius X noted, to help advance that end. Is this the purpose of the Constitution of the United States of America? Is this the purpose of any modern government in the world today. Is this the "teaching" of the counterfeit church of conciliarism. Perish the thought.

As I noted over five months ago now in Common Ground for Rudy and Benny, turncoat Catholic politicians who support baby-killing, whether by surgical or chemical means, whether unconditionally or with some restrictions, have this in common with the conciliarist officials who sometimes condemn and sometimes enable them: a manifest rejection of Catholicism as the one and only foundation of personal and social order, making it possible for these politicians to heap more burning coals upon their head by defying this plain words of Pope Leo XIII, contained in Immortale Dei:

Hence, lest concord be broken by rash charges, let this be understood by all, that the integrity of Catholic faith cannot be reconciled with opinions verging on naturalism or rationalism, the essence of which is utterly to do away with Christian institutions and to install in society the supremacy of man to the exclusion of God. Further, it is unlawful to follow one line of conduct in private life and another in public, respecting privately the authority of the Church, but publicly rejecting it; for this would amount to joining together good and evil, and to putting man in conflict with himself; whereas he ought always to be consistent, and never in the least point nor in any condition of life to swerve from Christian virtue.

 

The Cristeros raised high the banner of Christ the King in Mexico. They were being slaughtered by the Masonic revolutionaries in Our Lady's country, revolutionaries who were being aided and abetted by the government of the United States of America. Father Miguel Augustin Pro, S.J., cried out "Viva Cristo Rey!" as the bullets pierced his flesh on November 23, 1927.

The defenders of the Faith in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, cried out "Viva Cristo Rey!" as the Communists and other anticlericalists, aided and abetted by the money (and sometimes the actual physical presence) of American celebrities--fought them--and killed so many of them--tooth and nail.

Bishop Ignatius Kung of Shanghai, China, exclaimed, "Long live Christ the King!" in his native dialect in a dog track stadium in Shanghai before being taken to spend thirty years in prison.

Can we do any less? We must never betray the cause of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen as the petty politicians who take positions according to the latest polling results and/or the perceived "slant" of the audiences they are addressing at any given moment, or as the conciliarists do. We must raise high the banner of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen at all times, fulfilling Our Lady's Fatima Message faithfully in our own lives, praying as many Rosaries as we can each day as the consecrated slaves of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The petty politicians of today will pass. Their ideologies (conservatism, liberalism, capitalism, socialism, communism, utilitarianism, libertarianism, positivism, relativism, materialism, etc.) will pass, each and every one of them. What will replace them? Who will replace these petty politicians?

Consider these words spoken to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour, Christ the King, Himself:

"I will reign in spite of all who oppose Me."

(quoted in: The Right Reverend Emile Bougaud. The Life of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, reprinted by TAN Books and Publishers in 1990, p. 361.)

 

May we never stand in opposition to the Social Reign of Christ the King and to Mary our Immaculate Queen!

 

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

 

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us now and the hour of our deaths. Amen.

All to thee, Blessed Mother. All to thy Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we love you. Save souls!

 

Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus  (Pope Leo XIII, 1899)

 

Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly prostrate before Thine altar.  We are Thine, and Thine we wish to be; but to be more surely united with Thee, behold, each one of us freely consecrates himself today to Thy most Sacred Heart.

Many indeed have never known Thee;  many too, despising Thy precepts, have rejected Thee.  Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Thy Sacred Heart.

Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned Thee;  grant that they may quickly return to their Father's house lest they die of wretchedness and hunger.

Be Thou King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinion, or whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and the unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one Shepherd.

Be Thou King of all those who are still involved in the darkness of idolatry or of Islamism, and refuse not to draw them all into the light and kingdom of God. 

Turn Thine eyes of mercy towards the children of that race, once Thy chosen people.  Of old, they called down upon themselves the Blood of the Savior;  may It now descend upon them as a laver of redemption and of life.

Grant , O Lord,  to Thy Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm;  give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry:  Praise be to the Divine Heart that wrought our salvation;  to It be glory and honor forever.  Amen.

Act of Reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (1928)

O sweetest Jesus, whose overflowing charity towards men is most ungratefully repaid by such great forgetfulness, neglect and contempt, see, prostrate before Thy altars, we strive by special honor to make amends for the wicked coldness of men and the contumely with which Thy most loving Heart is everywhere treated.

At the same time, mindful of the fact that we too have sometimes not been free from unworthiness, and moved therefore with most vehement sorrow, in the first place we implore Thy mercy on us, being prepared by voluntary expiation to make amends for the sins we have ourselves committed, and also for the sins of those who wander far from the way of salvation, whether because, being obstinate in their unbelief, they refuse to follow Thee as their shepherd and leader, or because, spurning the promises of their Baptism, they have cast off the most sweet yoke of Thy law. We now endeavor to expiate all these lamentable crimes together, and it is also our purpose to make amends for each one of them severally: for the want of modesty in life and dress, for impurities, for so many snares set for the minds of the innocent, for the violation of feast days, for the horrid blasphemies against Thee and Thy saints, for the insults offered to Thy Vicar and to the priestly order, for the neglect of the Sacrament of Divine love or its profanation by horrible sacrileges, and lastly for the public sins of nations which resist the rights and the teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast instituted. Would that we could wash away these crimes with our own blood! And now, to make amends for the outrage offered to the Divine honor, we offer to Thee the same satisfaction which Thou didst once offer to Thy Father on the Cross and which Thou dost continually renew on our altars, we offer this conjoined with the expiations of the Virgin Mother and of all the Saints, and of all pious Christians, promising from our heart that so far as in us lies, with the help of Thy grace, we will make amends for our own past sins, and for the sins of others, and for the neglect of Thy boundless love, by firm faith, by a pure way of life, and by a perfect observance of the Gospel law, especially that of charity; we will also strive with all our strength to prevent injuries being offered to Thee, and gather as many as we can to become Thy followers. Receive, we beseech Thee, O most benign Jesus, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Reparatress, the voluntary homage of this expiation, and vouchsafe, by that great gift of final perseverance, to keep us most faithful until death in our duty and in Thy service, so that at length we may all come to that fatherland, where Thou with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest God for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

 

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Luke the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Simon and Jude, pray for us.

Saint Peter of Alcantara, pray for us.

Saint Hedwig, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

Saint Francis Borgia, pray for us.

Saint Edward the Confessor, pray for us.

Saint John Leonard, pray for us.

Saint Dionysisus (Denis), Rusticus and Eleutherius, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Therese Lisieux, pray for us.

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Placidus and Companions, pray for us.

Saint Bruno, pray for us.

Saint Hilarion, pray for us.

Saint John Cantius, pray for us.

Saint Wenceslaus, pray for us.

Saint Jerome, pray for us.

Saint Remigius, pray for us.

Saint Clotilde, pray for us.

Saints Cosmas and Damian, pray for us.

Pope Saint Linus, pray for us.

Saint Peter Nolasco, pray for us.

Saint Raymond Pennafort, pray for us.

Saint Raymond Nonnatus, pray for us.

Saint Thecla, pray for us.

Saint Matthew, pray for us.

Saint Eustachius and Family, pray for us.

Saint Leonard of Port Maurice, pray for us.

Saint Joseph Cupertino, pray for us.

Saint Januarius, pray for us.

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saints Cornelius and Cyprian, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us.

Saint Giles, pray for us.

Saint Stephen of Hungary, pray for us.

Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us.

Saint Nicomedes, pray for us.

Saint Joseph Calasanctius, pray for us.

Pope Saint Zephyrinus, pray for us.

Saint Louis IX, King of France, pray for us.

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, pray for us.

Saint Bartholomew, pray for us.

Saint Philip Benizi, pray for us.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, pray for us.

Saint John Eudes, pray for us.

Saint Hyacinth, pray for us, pray for us.

Saint Agapitus, pray for us.

Saint Helena, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saint Clare of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Irenaeus, pray for us.

Saints Monica, pray for us.

Saint Jude, pray for us.

Saint John the Beloved, pray for us.

Saint Francis Solano, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint Dominic Savio, pray for us.

Saint  Scholastica, pray for us.

Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.

Saint Antony of the Desert, pray for us.

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us.

Saint Peter Damian, pray for us.

Saint Turibius, pray for us.

Saint Francis Solano, pray for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Saint Monica, pray for us.

Saint Agatha, pray for us.

Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us.

Saint Basil the Great, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint Cecilia, pray for us.

Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.

Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.

Saint John Lalonde, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel Lalemont, pray for us.

Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.

Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.

Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.

Saint John DeBrebeuf, pray for us.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.

Saint Therese Lisieux, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Saint Dominic, pray for us.

Saint Hyacinth, pray for us.

Saint Basil, pray for us.

Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Sebastian, pray for us.

Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.

Saint Genevieve, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.

Saint Rita of Cascia, pray for us.

Saint Louis de Montfort, pray for us.

Blessed Humbeline, pray for us.

Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.

Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.

Father Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.

Francisco Marto, pray for us.

Jacinta Marto, pray for us.

Juan Diego, pray for us.

Father Maximilian Kolbe,M.I., pray for us.

Father Frederick Faber, pray for us.

 

The Longer Version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed by Pope Leo XIII, 1888

O glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil.  Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil.  Fight this day the battle of our Lord, together with  the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in heaven.  That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels.  Behold this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage.  Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the Name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay, and cast into eternal perdition, souls destined for the crown of eternal glory.  That wicked dragon pours out. as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.  These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on Her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck the sheep may be scattered.  Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory.  They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude.  Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church.  Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations.  Amen.

Verse: Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.

Response: The Lion of the Tribe of Juda has conquered the root of David.

Verse: Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.

Response: As we have hoped in Thee.

Verse: O Lord hear my prayer.

Response: And let my cry come unto Thee.

Verse: Let us pray.  O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as suppliants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of our souls. 

Response:  Amen.