The greatest disaster to befall the world has been the uncrowning of Christ the King – the abandonment by much of the world of belief in Jesus Christ as King of all individuals and of all civil authorities. The world may be dying, but there is some good news despite the current, serious collapse of many parts of the Catholic Church. A traditional Catholic renaissance has been growing in recent years, both in the New World as well as in the Old.
CHRIST THE KING HAS BEEN UNCROWNED
The greatest disaster to befall the world has been the uncrowning of Christ the King – the abandonment by much of the world of belief in Jesus Christ as King of all individuals and of all civil authorities. This rebellion by individuals and governments against Christ the King has led to a rejection of true beliefs and the acceptance of false ideas and ideologies. Most seriously, it has resulted in a dying world.
In the past, the doctrine of Christ the King was a crucial Catholic belief, which taught that Jesus Christ is King of all individuals in the world – Individual Kingship – including Catholics, non-Catholics, and non-Christians. Christ is also King of all civil authorities – Collective or Social Kingship.
Not only has the world rejected Christ the King, it has also denied the teachings of Christ’s holy church – the Catholic Church – and excluded it from the active life of countries – a grave and destructive error. Tragically, in the modern world, man has crowned himself in place of Jesus Christ. “God the State” and “God the Man” have replaced Christ the King and the teaching of his Catholic Church with false secular ideas. The results are appalling. Human beings are destroying their countries and their civilisations.
In 1925, Pope Pius XI, promulgated the encyclical Quas Primas to remind the world that Christ reigns above all earthly rulers. In the encyclical, the Pope lamented that Jesus Christ and his holy law was being “thrust out of people’s lives”.
The world has rejected Christ’s teaching that “all power in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations in the world, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you”. (St Matthew 28:18-20).
Christ’s ejection from everyday life dates back centuries to the Reformation and the French Revolution. The Declaration of the Rights of Man rejected the Social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ and replaced it with the heresy that all power resides in the people. It rejected the words of St Paul that “there is no authority but from God alone. (Rom 13:1)
Pope Pius had hoped that the new Feast of Christ the King would increase people’s faith in Jesus Christ and in his holy Catholic Church, the Kingdom of Christ on earth. The doctrine of Christ the King emphasises the truth of the Catholic Faith and the falsehood of other religions. Yet, the Pope, were he alive today, would be horrified to discover that since 1925, the power and authority of Christ and his holy church have declined substantially.
Many of Christ’s commands and those of his church are ignored and replaced by false secular beliefs and government policies contrary to Catholic teaching, and to objective reality, despite Christ’s warning to his disciples that “If you love me, keep my commandments”.
Christ the King has even been uncrowned by part of the Catholic Church itself, which has largely turned its back on traditional Catholic doctrine regarding Christ the King. In some parts of the Catholic Church, even the teaching of the Social Reign of Jesus Christ has been forbidden.
Pius XI established the Feast of the Christ the King to be celebrated on the last Sunday in October. Yet, in 1969, less than 50 years after the promulgation of Quas Primas, Pope Paul VI replaced the Feast of Christ the King with a Solemnity called Jesus Christ King of the Universe, which is celebrated at the end of the Church’s liturgical year towards the end of November.
Paul VI also replaced many of the prayers and hymns in the original mass of Christ the King and in the breviary. Previously, these prayers had focused on the here and now, but in the new Solemnity the emphasis of the revised prayers is on the end times. For example, in the hymn from the Vespers for the traditional Feast of Christ the King were the words:
“The wicked mob screams out ‘We don’t want Christ as King’.
While we with shouts of joy hail Thee as the world’s supreme King”.
Both the above two lines were discarded in 1969. Also abandoned were verses of other hymns which had clearly spelt out the traditional doctrine of Christ’s Kingship and which authorities in the 1960’s considered outdated.
Today, only in the Traditional Mass, based on the 1962 calendar, do we find the original prayers for the Feast of Christ the King still included and the mass still celebrated on the date originally established by Pope Pius XI.
Most governments in the present world have rejected the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ, despite Pope Pius XI emphasising in Quas Primas that “It would be a grave error to say that Christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs. Heads of nations should not neglect the public duty of reverence and obedience to the rule of Christ”.
DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES OF UNCROWNING CHRIST THE KING
Pope Pius XI taught in Quas Primas that uncrowning Christ the King and rejecting the teaching of his holy church would have “deplorable consequences”. All beliefs, true and false, secular and religious have consequences and beliefs which reject the true teaching of Christ the King conflict with objective reality and end up leading to serious negative outcomes, even to the collapse and dying of some of the largest countries in the world.
Where Jesus Christ does not reign there is inevitably disorder, death, and dying countries.We cannot reject the commands of Christ and his Catholic Church without inflicting serious damage on ourselves. Christ has all power and authority, and has complete supremacy over all the world, but God has also given human beings the free will to reject his commands.
Uncrowning Christ the King leads inevitably to self-inflicted destruction. Human beings have separated themselves from reality and as a result believe all kinds of false beliefs, religions, delusions and ideologies. If our beliefs do not conform to the objective truth, appalling results will inevitably follow.
Consider the crucial area of human fertility. Many governments around the world have introduced free access to “reproductive health services” – a euphemism for contraception and abortion – in direct contradiction to the doctrines of the Catholic Church, which teaches that they are both grave sins.
As a result, many countries today are suffering from deadly beliefs and behaviour about fertility. In most western countries many believe that contraception and abortion are human rights, even though they lead inescapably to dying countries. These so-called “reproductive health services” are significantly undermining the economic and social foundations of many countries.
Much of the current world is dying from a new more deadly variant of the Black Death. Far worse than the bubonic plague that killed a third of Europe’s population in the 14th century. Today, they’re dying from a world-wide plague of false beliefs and behaviour which have led to “below replacement fertility” – less than 2.1 children per woman and which leads to dying countries.
The majority of countries in the world such as China, South Korea, and several countries in Europe including the UK are currently suffering from massive collapses in fertility and huge slumps in working populations. Japan’s population is collapsing. Even the USA’s fertility is below replacement fertility caused largely by contraception and abortion and by lifestyles with sub-replacement fertility.
Human beings have also uncrowned Christ the King by disobeying his commands and those of his Holy Church about marriage, children, pornography, and education etc. Countries have fallen into an abyss of false beliefs, heresies, apostasy and sin.
Rejecting the Social Reign of Jesus Christ leads to below replacement fertility. The more fertility levels fall below replacement the faster countries die.
According to research carried out in recent years by Father Donald Klosters in the USA and published in Lifesite News, Novus Ordo Catholics have much lower levels of fertility compared with Traditional Latin Mass Catholics and very much higher levels of abortion and contraception.
Pope Pius XI observed in Quas Primas. “Human society is tottering to its fall because it no longer has a secure and solid foundation.” The Pope wrote these prophetic words one hundred years ago in 1925. Unlike future generations, he understood the disastrous consequences of rejecting the individual and collective kingship of Christ.
CHRIST THE KING MUST BE RECROWNED TO SAVE THE WORLD
The only way to save previously Catholic countries from dying is to recrown Christ the King by a world-wide traditional Catholic renaissance, or as Pope Pius X described it: “the restoration of all things in Christ”. In countries that are largely non-Catholic, Christ must be crowned by evangelising them with the traditional Catholic faith.
Christ is not only king of our hearts and souls, consciences, intelligence and wills but also of our families, cities, peoples, and countries. Not only private individuals but also rulers in all countries are bound to give public honour and obedience to Christ. .
Today, Quas Primas is as important as it was when it was first proclaimed one hundred years ago. The world simply cannot survive the uncrowning of Christ the King. “Christ must conquer, Christ must reign, and Christ must command. All human beings must obey the commands of Christ the King.
Disaster follows if Christ’s church and the state do not jointly promote the Catholic faith. Moral laws must conform to the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church. Contraception and abortion must be rejected and traditional marriage, which considers the primary purpose of lifelong marriage to be the rearing of children, must be re-established.
True religion is about the real world – it is not a religious fantasy. Belief in Christ the King is not just a pious religious practice with nothing to do with every-day life, but a truth with concrete material consequences. Jesus Christ really is King of the world, even if we don’t believe that he is. Rejection of Jesus Christ and his Holy Church leads to fantasies, delusions and sin.
Christ must reign in China, India and Japan just as much as in formerly Catholic countries. The Catholic Faith must be the basis of public law and public policy in all countries. The state must recognise the truth of Catholicism, not because it wants to but because there is no other set of beliefs that conform to objective reality.
The world urgently needs a traditional Catholic renaissance and regeneration and the evangelisation of the non-Catholic world. The traditional Catholic Faith is the vital heartbeat of the world. In the last 70 years much of the world has suffered the equivalent of a massive heart attack.
True religion must be restored and transmitted throughout the world for the survival of the human race. God will not abandon us “but those who abandon Him will perish”. (Ps 73:27).
Human beings must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ by restoring the Empire of Our Lord. Pius XI emphasised in Quas Primas, that Christ and his church – the Catholic Church – is the one and only source of salvation.
Christ himself declared: “No-one comes to the Father except through me” (St. John 14). In the early 3rd century St. Cyprian of Carthage taught “Outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation”. Christ taught his disciples, “In truth, I tell you whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”.
A regeneration which is not just happening in France but is also taking place in other countries too. The world has begun to recover from the terrible disaster of uncrowning Christ the King. The recrowning of Jesus Christ has started!
Current restrictions on the traditional Catholic liturgy in the Catholic Church must be completely removed. As Pope Pius XI said in Quas Primas, “In Christ is the salvation of the individual, in Christ is the salvation of society”.
Jesus Christ must reign, otherwise countries will die. Japan is the worlds fourth largest economy, but its population is collapsing because of very low births, which are well below replacement level, and from over a million abortions a year.
YOUNG TRADITIONAL CATHOLICS HAVE BEGUN RECROWNING CHRIST THE KING
The world may be dying, but there is some good news despite the current, serious collapse of many parts of the Catholic Church. A traditional Catholic renaissance has been growing in recent years, both in the New World as well as in the Old.
One notable example is the annual Chartres Pilgrimage in France which has grown since the early 1980’s to become probably the biggest traditional Catholic pilgrimage in the world. The theme of the 2025 Chartres Pilgrimage is “Christ the King – That He may reign on earth as well as in heaven”. The social kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ is a foundation stone of Our Lady of Christendom, the French lay organisation that has organised the pilgrimage for over 40 years.
Young Americans at the head of the 2025 US Chapter on the Chartres Pilgrimage.
In 2025, for three days during Pentecost more than 20,000 pilgrims, mostly under 20 years old, walked, sang and suffered the 70 miles from Paris to Chartres. They recited the rosary, went to confession , took part in night-time adoration and above all they assisted at the three traditional masses in reverent silence.
The first Chartres pilgrims in 1982 were locked out of the Chartres Cathedral by church authorities. In 2025 Rome tried to force the pilgrimage to use the Novus Ordo and to ban the Traditional Latin Mass. But the lay organisation that runs the pilgrimage firmly refused.
The huge increase in the number of pilgrims on the Chartres Pilgrimage reflects a growing Catholic renaissance in the traditional Latin mass and in traditional Catholic doctrines. A regeneration which is not just happening in France but is also taking place in other countries too. The world has begun to recover from the terrible disaster of uncrowning Christ the King. The recrowning of Jesus Christ has started!
