Kirkcast: How the Catholic Feast of Christ the King ended up on Protestant calendars

So, did you miss me after two weeks off the Kirkcast? I’m back just in time for the end of the liturgical year. This Sunday, I’ll be preaching about something else but I wanted to share on this Kirkcast a significant thing about Christ the King Sunday, as it is called on the church calendar. The Feast of Christ the King, started by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as a Catholic holy day, is a surprising celebration. Although its name sounds powerful, it was actually a protest. It was created to push back against Christian nationalism, white supremacy, and the total control that governments were taking in Europe after World War I. The feast, established in the Pope’s letter Quas Primas, was a smart way to say that Christ’s spiritual and universal rule was higher than any earthly ruler or ideology. This key anti-imperial message later strongly connected with mainline Protestant groups, including Presbyterians, which led them to add it to their own church calendars. A papal challenge to rising totalitarianism Understanding when Quas Primas was written is key. Pope Pius XI wrote it while Benito Mussolini’s Fascist government was growing strong in Italy, and secular, nationalist movements were taking hold across Europe. These groups often used national religious identities, which is like an early form of Christian nationalism, to support their power. They demanded that people’s top loyalty should be to the state, the nation, or the race. Pius XI saw this demand as a direct threat to the Church and to individual freedom. By creating a universal feast for Christ the King, he told the world’s faithful that their greatest loyalty belonged only to Jesus Christ. The feast, therefore, acted as a powerful, peaceful statement: no nation, no dictator, and no racial belief was ultimately in charge; all were under the divine Kingship of the one who ruled through the Cross. The Pope confirmed this stand against supremacy later in the 1930s when he openly condemned Nazism and planned a letter that criticized racism and anti-Semitism. This confirmed the feast’s role as a defense against all forms of state worship based on identity. The Crown of Thorns: Christ’s kingship of justice and service Theology further supports the feast’s protest. Pius XI purposely made Christ’s rule different from the rule of kings on Earth. He noted that Christ’s kingdom is one of “justice, love, and peace,” not one “sustained by arrogance, rivalries, and oppression.” Christ’s kingship, shown during his crucifixion, is defined by humility, service, and sacrifice, not by force. For Christians, saying Christ is King means rejecting any group, like Christian nationalists or white supremacists, that tries to use faith to gain temporary or exclusive power. These ideologies seek power through worldly force and division. This directly conflicts with the Kingship of the one who rules by sacrificial love and care for everyone. The feast asks the Church to show a public commitment to morality and social justice that goes against the forceful language of earthly empires. The feast’s urgent relevance in today’s america The original purpose of the Feast of Christ the King—to reject the idea that the state is the highest authority—is urgently relevant in places like Chicago and Charlotte today. When government agencies like ICE and CBP conduct brutal raids against immigrant families, it shows a government that puts its own power and restrictive laws above human life and dignity. The fear and separation caused by these actions echo the totalitarian impulses that Pope Pius XI fought against in the 1920s and 30s. The feast reminds Christians that their true King demands justice and protection for the vulnerable, including the immigrant and the non-citizen. The spreading rhetoric that creates distrust of non-white Americans is a modern form of the nationalism the Pope opposed. It attempts to use race to divide people and define who truly belongs to a nation. When government shows increasingly authoritarian tendencies, the feast stands as a yearly call to choose the kingdom of Christ, which is defined by universal welcome and sacrificial love, over the kingdoms of this world, which are often defined by borders, fear, and oppression. Adoption by mainline protestant traditions While at first a strictly Catholic event, the Feast of Christ the King became popular among mainline Protestants in the second half of the 1900s. After the Church changed its services at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), it moved the feast to the last Sunday of the church year (right before Advent). It also changed the name to the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. This placement, which focuses on Christ as the beginning and end of history, helped bridge the gap with Protestant churches. Groups like the Presbyterian Church, the United Methodist Church, and others embraced this final Sunday. They often call it “Christ the King Sunday” o...