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Writings of the Bishop
Christ the King: Midyear Meeting Knights of Columbus
Posted in Selected Homilies/Addresses
I. Introduction: Christ the King in Scripture
Scripture hammers the point home: the Lord Jesus is King:
King of our hearts; King of nations; Lord and King of history!
The Old Testament foretells the coming of the Son of David
who will rule over the house of David forever.
The New Testament speaks of wise men from the east, gentiles,
who came from afar to render homage to the newborn King of the Jews.
The Book of Revelation gives us an image of the heavenly court in its splendor.
And the point is literally hammered into the Cross:
“Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”
II. Quas Primas (1925)
A. The acknowledgment of Christ as King is as old as Scripture
but the Feast of Christ the King is new – not even a century old.
It was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 – and for what reason we may ask?
B. Americans may remember that period as ‘the roaring twenties’ –
a time of peace, prosperity, and progress following the turmoil of World War I.
If that perception proved in part illusory, elsewhere the post-war situation was dire:
• after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Communism tightened its grip on Russia
• in Mexico it was a time of furious persecution against the Church
as our Knights of Columbus martyrs bear witness
• Europe was witnessing the rise of totalitarianism
as Il Duce and Der Fürher were mounting the world stage to unleash their fury.
C. As the storm clouds of totalitarianism gathered,
Pope Pius XI instituted this solemn feast of Christ the King,
declaring that in Him alone is the salvation not only of each person
but indeed that Christ is the source of truth, justice, and love
for each nation and indeed for the whole world.
III. A Feast for Others?
A. When this feast was instituted, America was in a period of isolationism.
So perhaps it’s fair to say that here it was regarded as “a feast for others” –
something meant for countries where the freedom to practice & act upon one’s faith
and other fundamental liberties were being curtailed and violently snuffed out.
Yet this country too was no stranger to religious and racial persecution.
Our Order was founded when anti-Catholic feeling still ran high in society.
African-Americans and many immigrants were denied their rights
just as today the law still regards the unborn as non-persons with no rights.
B. For all her flaws, however, America was and remains a beacon of hope in the world
and we can take justifiable pride in the contribution that this country made
to the spread and defense of democracy around the world.
Among our brother Knights are many who have paid the ultimate price for freedom.
Indeed, our American experience is reflected in the Declaration on Religious Liberty
of the Second Vatican Council.
C. Yet we all know the saying: “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.”
The Feast of Christ the King should impel us to a new vigilance, a new awareness,
that religious liberty in this country is not only eroding but under active attack
by powerful forces in our culture—in media, entertainment, education & government.
As most of you know, the bishops of the United States have launched a project
to defend and promote religious liberty in the United States and around the world.
Last week, as the Chairman of this new project, I stood before the U.S. bishops
and reminded myself and called my brother bishops to be watchmen,
who are vigilant for threats to religious liberty and ready to face them squarely.
After all, religious liberty is the first of human freedoms & the source of all the others.
Failure to defend religious freedom is failure to defend human dignity.
D. Religious liberty is more than the right to attend Mass and pray the Rosary at home.
It includes “the sacristy” but also the right of churches to speak and act publicly.
A growing chorus of voices, however, wants to confine the Church to the sacristy
that is, to exclude it from public life, whether it’s involvement in public policy
or its role as a major provider of education, charity, and healthcare services.
“No more”, these rising voices are saying, as they seek to re-fashion
a heartless society around the absence of God, and let me give you a few examples:
Bureaucratic agencies like Health and Human Services and USAID have imposed
new and illegal conditions on Catholic international relief agencies,
demanding that they provide for abortion and contraception
in order to compete for government contracts.
Health and Human Services threatens to force private insurers, including churches,
to include abortifacients and contraception in their plans in spite of moral objections.
The Department of Justice now regards defense of marriage between a man & woman
as “bias and prejudice” – akin to racism, thus putting the Church in its crosshairs.
So also the Department of Justice has attacked before the U.S. Supreme Court
the ministerial exception by which churches have the right
to choose and manage their own ministers…
to say nothing of the many threats to religious liberty at the state level
where Catholic Charities are being driven out of business
because of fidelity to Catholic teaching.
IV. Christus Victor
A. Marching under the banner of Christ the King we cannot sound the retreat.
As Pope Benedict recently said:
“[Professing the faith] implies public testimony and commitment” …
and “demands social responsibility for what one believes.”
We don’t celebrate today Christ the Sacristan but Christ the King –
and that is an inescapably public statement.
Religion can never be a solely private thing; on the contrary,
we believe with others, we worship with others, we build with others,
and we try to the best of our ability to serve others.
Catholics have done this as devout believers and proud citizens
since the beginning of this nation and in all the nations represented here today.
B. So we must ardently pray for the cause of religious liberty at home and abroad,
and we must educate ourselves about the authentic meaning of religious liberty,
even as we engage scholars and experts to help us defend it, and
ask Catholics throughout our jurisdictions to raise their voices in defense of liberty.
We must advocate for sound public policy and fight for our rights through litigation
and engage public officials in accord with the deepest values of democracy.
As I have said several times during the course of these days,
I regard the Knights of Columbus as the best allies and co-workers the bishops have
in defending religious liberty in all the countries where the Order exists and beyond.
We proceed resolutely, confident that Christ guides and strengthens us in the work
of creating a civilization of truth and love, a civilization of freedom, justice, and peace.
C. As subjects of Christ the King, we exercise our God-given freedoms best
when we live up to the first principle of the Order, namely, charity.
Here the principles of charity and patriotism come together
as we step into the public arena and serve the common good
by fulfilling the charter given us by Christ Himself:
to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked,
care for the sick, visit the imprisoned, and so much more.
We Catholics do all of that through a vast network of human services
and we do this not as an add-on to our faith but as an integral part of our mission.
And the Knights of Columbus, is unparalleled in its charitable outreach.
How important that we, the family of the Knights of Columbus, in spite of threats,
remain in the forefront of this struggle, united in charity,
in service to one and in service to all, so that the world may know new hope!
V. Conclusion: Thy Kingdom Come!
Jesus Christ is our King. Him we love. Him we serve. Him we obey.
For more than two centuries Catholics have done this and have been good citizens
in these United States and the same can be said of other countries you represent.
On this feast we commit ourselves, by God’s grace, to do the same,
that the blessings of the American experiment may be only a foretaste
of the eternal happiness prepared for us from the foundation of the world.
Vivat Jesus!
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