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Feast of Christ the King Day |
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The Feast of Christ the King Day (Banquete de Cristo el Día del rey) is a relatively recent addition to the western liturgical calendar. It was originally established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and was essentially a magnification of the Feast of the Ascension. It was originally celebrated on the last Sunday of October. However, in 1969, Pope Paul VI moved it to the last Sunday of Ordinary Time (the Sunday immediately preceding Advent). The Roman Catholic church festival celebrated and honored Jesus Christ as lord over all creation and this theme made it a fitting end to the liturgical year. The festival is also observed in Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant churches.
It is no coincidence that today's feast of Christ the King was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 in response to growing secularism in Mexico, communism in Russia, and fascism in Italy and eventually in Germany, which threatened not only the Catholic Church but also civilization itself. The Pope realized that once the Mexican government began to force the Church to submit to the intolerably repressive provisions of their revolutionary constitution of 1917, conflict would be inevitable. Indeed, Mexican Catholics had already pushed back against this repression in 1920 by erecting an unauthorized monument to Christ the King on the top of a mountain named El Cubilete, which lies at the exact geographic center of the country--thereby claiming Mexico for Christ the King, which the government then bombed 6 years later. It was later rebuilt in the 1940s with an even bigger statue to Christ the King, paid for with small contributions from 100s of thousands of faithful impoverished Catholics
And so in 1926, the year the first monument to Christ the King was destroyed, the conflict between Church and state in Mexico broke out into active war, eventually taking 90,000 lives. 25 Cristero martyrs have already been canonized and 15 more "Servants of God", including 14 year old José Luis Sánchez del Río who is featured in "For Greater Glory" have been recognized as martyrs and are up for beatification. The damage inflicted on Church and society by their own government was profound. At least 40 priests were killed and by 1934 Mexico had lost 96% of its priests through emigration, expulsion, or assassination. There had been 4,500 priests serving the people before the rebellion, but by 1934 there were only 334 priests licensed by the government to serve 15 million people, 1 priest for every 45,000 Catholics.
In addition, all Church property was confiscated and all seminaries were closed for 14 years, until 1940. By 1935, 17 of Mexico's 31 states (that's more than half of the states in the country) had no priests at all and the activities of the Catholic Church in Mexico continued to be highly restricted until 1992 when some of the civil rights of the Church were restored following the second visit of Pope John Paul II in 1990. And while Mexican priests can now vote and once again wear clerical attire in public, church buildings built prior to 1917 remain the property of the state. The constitution continues to prohibit outdoor worship, except in exceptional circumstances and with governmental permission. Religious organizations are still not permitted to own print or electronic media outlets and governmental permission is required to broadcast religious ceremonies.
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Copyright 2000 - 2024 Sherri Davis, All Rights Reserved. Contributors retain the copyright to their work. Please do not take art or written content without permission. Other graphics and reference materials are used and attributed as per the Fair Use Provision of The Copyright Act and individual terms of use.
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