Cardinal Burke: The Eucharist shows Christ as King
'The social nature of Christ's Kingship is manifested most fully in the Eucharistic Sacrifice' Cardinal Burke noted.
(PerMariam) — The talk below was given by Cardinal Burke on March 21, 2025 and first published by the Van Thuan Observatory. It is republished here with direct permission of the Observatory.
National School of the Social Doctrine of the Church
“The Social Kingship of Christ and the Magisterium of Pius XI, In the centenary of the Quas primas”
On the occasion of this formative session of the National School of the Social Doctrine of the Church, I would like to thank Riccardo Cascioli for the kind invitation to address the topic “The Social Kingship of Christ: Theological Foundations.” In the magisterium of Pius XI, these theological foundations are expressed with remarkable clarity and synthesis in the Encyclical Quas Primas, whose centenary we are celebrating.
It seems important to me, in order to understand Christ's social kingship and its theological foundations, to assume a certain height of vision that leads us to briefly consider Christ's Kingship in all its components, in the school of Pius XI and his remarkable encyclical.
“Restoring all things in Christ” - "Instaurare omnia in Christo" - words taken from St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, were the motto of Pope St. Pius X, on whom Christ conferred the office of St. Peter at a time of tremendous turmoil in the world and in the Church (Aug. 4, 1903 - Aug. 20, 1914).1 They refer to order and peace, to eternal salvation, for which God the Father sent his only-begotten Son to take our human nature and to suffer, die, rise from the dead and ascend to the right hand of the Father. They refer to the Mystery of Faith, which assures us that Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father in glory, remains with us on earth, pouring out from his glorious pierced Heart, without measure and without ceasing, the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit on his Mystical Body, the Church, that is, in human hearts.
The correct translation of the verb instaurare is in fact being debated. Pope Benedict XVI, in his address at the Wednesday general audience on December 5, 2012, discussed the meaning of this verb that describes the purpose of the redemptive Incarnation. He stated:
... The Apostle, however, speaks more precisely of the recapitulation of the universe in Christ, which means that in the grand design of creation and history, Christ stands as the center of the whole world's journey, the supporting axis of everything, drawing the whole of reality to Himself, to overcome dispersion and limitation and lead everything to the fullness willed by God (cf. Eph. 1:23).[2]
The meaning of the verb is clear from the text from which the sentence is taken.
The text is part of the hymn of praise to God and thanksgiving to him with which the Letter to the Ephesians begins. Praising God the Father for choosing us in Christ, for adopting us as his true sons and daughters in his only begotten Son, the text declares,
In him [Our Lord Jesus Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he has poured out upon us. For he has made known to us in all wisdom and discernment the mystery of his will, according to the purpose he established in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite in him all things, those in heaven and those on earth.[3]
In short, in Christ the right order of all things is realized, the union of heaven and earth, as God the Father intended from the beginning. Christ overcomes the disorder introduced into the world by man's sin, by our First Parents' rebellion against God's will for us and for the world. By disobeying God, our First Parents thought, according to the deception and wrong affection introduced into their minds and hearts by Satan, to become God. It is the obedience of God the Incarnate Son that restores, restores man's original communion with God and, thus, peace in the world. His obedience unites all things again, “those in heaven and those on earth.”[4]
It is the Mystery of Faith that teaches us the Kingship of Christ. We consider the incomparable reality of Christ – the two natures, human and divine, in the one person of God the Son – under various aspects, referring to Christ by various titles, for example, Son of God and Son of Mary, Good Shepherd, Eternal High Priest, Teacher, Eternal Lawgiver, and so on. In reality, the great mystery of the Redeeming Incarnation of God the Son is so great that we can only attempt to understand it by the use of various analogies, which point to the incomparable reality but never fully express it.
Pope Pius XI, in his Encyclical Letter Quas Primas, by which he instituted “the feast of the Kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ to be observed annually throughout the world,” [5] observed to his brother bishops:
And it is not necessary, Venerable Brethren, that we should expound to you at length the reasons why we have instituted the solemnity of Christ the King distinct from the other feasts, in which it would already seem to have overshadowed and implicitly solemnized this same royal dignity. For it suffices to warn that while the material object of the present feasts of Our Lord is Christ Himself, the formal object, however, in them is entirely distinct from the name of Christ's royal power. The reason, then, why we wished to establish this feast on a Sunday is so that not only the clergy by the celebration of Mass and the recitation of the Divine Office, but also the people, free from their usual occupations, might bear exalted witness to Christ of their obedience and devotion. ...
Therefore let this be your office, Venerable Brethren, this your duty to see to it that the celebration of this annual feast be allowed, on appointed days, in every parish a course of preaching, so that the faithful, instructed concerning the nature, meaning, and importance of the feast itself, may undertake such a tenor of life as is truly worthy of those who wish to be affectionate and faithful subjects of the divine King.[6]
Liturgical observance of the Feast of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ gives the grace of more perfect obedience to Him alone who is our Savior, Him alone who is “the way, the truth and the life.”[7]
If the Church has always acclaimed Christ as King of heaven and earth, in accordance with Divine Revelation[8] and, above all, in accordance with the word of Christ Himself,[9] why did Pope Pius XI feel it important to provide for a special liturgical observance of the reality of Christ's Kingship? He speaks of the inspiration he had at the conclusion of the canonization of six confessors and virgins in the year 1925,[10] and the sixteenth centenary of the Council of Nicaea, also observed in 1925, which “defined and proposed as dogma the consubstantiality of the Only Begotten with the Father and at the same time, by inserting into the Symbol the formula 'His kingdom shall have no end,' thus proclaimed the royal dignity of Christ.”[11] The canonizations referred to are those of Saints Thérèse of Lisieux, Peter Canisius, Madeleine Sophie Barat, Marie-Madeleine Postel, John Vianney, and John Eudes. Moreover, 1925 was a Holy Year during which, as Pope Pius XI indicates, “a great many cardinals, bishops and faithful” had manifested to him “both individually and collectively” their desire to institute the feast of Christ the King.[12]
As Pastor of the universal Church, referring to the Te Deum sung at the conclusion of the Rite of Canonization and, in particular, to the words "Tu Rex gloriae Christe" - “You, Christ, King of Glory,” he wrote:
And what joy and what comfort we felt in our souls when, in the splendor of the Vatican Basilica, having promulgated the solemn decree, a boundless multitude of the people, raising the canticle of thanksgiving exclaimed, “You are the King of glory, O Christ!” For, while men and nations, far from God, through mutual hatred and internal discord are on their way to ruin and death, the Church of God, continuing to lavish mankind with the food of spiritual life, creates and forms generations of saints and holy men and women to Jesus Christ, who does not cease to call to the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom those whom he had faithful and obedient subjects in the earthly realm. [13]
The Roman Pontiff saw in the heroic virtue of the newly canonized saints, in their obedience to the Father's will, an obedience lived out in Christ, the answer to the situation of growing secularization, materialism and relativism – all inimical to God's love – in the world.
In the homily delivered during the pontifical Mass at which St. Thérèse of Lisieux was canonized on May 17, 1925, Pope Pius XI, referring to the union of the saint's heart with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, quoting St. Thérèse, declared:
It equally appears that because of this force of ardent charity, there existed in the young girl of Lisieux the purpose and commitment “to work for love of Jesus, solely to please Him, to console His Most Sacred Heart and to promote the eternal salvation of souls, who would then love Christ forever.” that this she began to do and achieve as soon as she arrived in the heavenly homeland is easily understood from that mystical shower of roses, which by divine concession, as she had naively promised when she was alive, she has already scattered on earth and continues to scatter.[14]
The heroic holiness of St. Thérèse of Lisieux is the most striking manifestation of the transformation of hearts and, therefore, of the family and society at large, which inevitably flows from the recognition and embrace of Christ's Kingship. We cannot help but observe that the situation of rebellion against Christ and His Law, described by Pope Pius XI in 1925, has only worsened in our time and is increasingly attempting to infiltrate the life of the Church itself and to corrupt the Bride of Christ, to lead her into grave infidelity, with an apostasy from the Apostolic Faith.
Pope Pius XI then expressed the great reality of the Kingship of Christ as it has always been understood in the Church. He declared:
For a long time it has been commonly used to call Christ by the appellation of king because of the supreme degree of excellence that he has supereminently among all created things. For in this way it is said that he reigns "in the minds of men" not only because of the height of his thought and the vastness of his science, but also because he is Truth, and it is necessary for men to draw upon and receive with obedience from him the truth; similarly “in the wills of men,” both because in him the holiness of the divine will is answered by the perfect integrity and submission of the human will, and because by his inspirations he influences our free will in such a way as to inflame us toward the noblest things.
Finally, Christ is recognized as “king of hearts” because of that “charity of his which surpasses all human understanding” (Eph. 3:19) and because of the attractions of his meekness and benignity: for none of men was ever so loved and never will be so loved in the future as Jesus Christ. But to enter into the matter, all must recognize that it is necessary to claim to Christ-man in the true sense of the word the name and powers of king; for only inasmuch as he is man can he be said to have received from the Father “power and honor and kingdom” (Dan 7:13-14), for as the Word of God, being of the same substance as the Father, he cannot but have in common with the Father what is proper to divinity, and consequently he over all created things has the supreme and most absolute empire. [15]
The understanding of Christ's Kingship is intimately linked to the understanding of His Most Sacred Heart. Time does not permit a longer treatment of the relationship between Christ's Kingship and His Sacred Heart. Suffice it to say that by virtue of the consubstantial union of the Heart of Jesus-human and divine-with the divine Heart of the Father, He reigns over all hearts. He purifies and sanctifies all hearts by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit from His glorious pierced Heart.
Christ's Kingship clearly extends to the individual human heart. His Kingship requires obedience that frees the individual to become all that God created him to be. In his first Encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, Pope St. John Paul II refers to the reality of Christ's Kingship in the human heart.[16] Christ's Kingship over human hearts is not an ideal to which all are called but which only a few can attain. Rather, it is a reality of divine grace that helps even the weakest and most tried human subject to reach a heroic degree of virtue, if only he cooperates with divine grace.
The Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council expounds the Church’s perennial teaching on Christ's kingship and the participation of all the faithful in his kingly mission in these words:
Christ, having made himself obedient unto death and therefore exalted by the Father (cf. Phil. 2:8-9), has entered into the glory of his kingdom; to him all things are subject, until he submits himself and all creatures to the Father, so that God may be all in all (cf. 1 Cor. 15:27-28). This power he has communicated to the disciples, so that they too may be constituted in royal freedom and by self-denial and holy living overcome in themselves the reign of sin indeed, serving Christ also in others, with humility and patience lead their brothers and sisters to the King, to serve whom is to reign.[17]
It is to this text that Pope St. John Paul II primarily refers. In the economy of grace, through the Mystery of Faith, we show to the fullest the nobility of human nature when we are united with Christ in the outpouring of His pure and unselfish love.
Christ's kingship over human hearts is exercised primarily through conscience, the “voice of God” that expresses his law written on every human heart. Conscience, therefore, is not, as is often falsely understood and asserted today, formed by the thoughts and desires of the individual, but by the truth that always purifies individual thoughts and desires and directs them in accordance with the law of love of God and neighbor. Obedience to the Kingship of Christ is expressed by the purpose and effort to conform all one's thinking, speaking and acting to Christ alive for us in the living Apostolic Tradition.
Christ's Kingship is, by its nature, universal, that is, it extends to all men, to the whole world. It is not a kingship only over the faithful or only over the things of the Church, but over all men and all their affairs. Kingship is exercised by the Heart of Christ in human hearts. It does not claim to rule the world directly, but to rule it through man, the steward of the world. Pope Pius XI, quoting Pope Leo XIII, declared:
On the other hand, he would be gravely mistaken who would take away from Christ-man the power over all temporal things, since he has received from the Father an absolute right over all created things, so that everything is subject to his will. However, as long as he was on earth he completely abstained from exercising such power, and just as he once despised the possession and care of human things, so he promised and allows the possessors duly to make use of them. In this regard these words are well suited, “He who gives the eternal kingdom of heaven does not take away the earthly throne.”
Therefore the dominion of our Redeemer embraces all men, as these words of Our predecessor of immortal memory Leo XIII affirm, which We here make Our own: “The empire of Christ does not extend only over Catholic peoples, or to those who, regenerated in the baptismal font, belong, strictly speaking, to the church, although erroneous opinions alienate them or dissension divides them from charity; but it also embraces as many as are deprived of the Christian faith, so that the whole human race is under the power of Jesus Christ.”
Nor is there any difference between individuals and domestic and civil society, for men, united in society, are no less under the power of Christ than are individual men. He alone is the source of private and public salvation: “In no one else is there salvation, nor under heaven any other name has been given to men, by which we may be saved” (Acts 4:12); he alone is the author of prosperity and true happiness for both individual citizens and states: “For the welfare of society has no other origin than that of man, inasmuch as society is nothing but a concordant multitude of men.” [18]
Christians, who do not claim to rule the civil state through the Church, are at the same time called to give heroic public witness to the truth of the moral law, the law of God. Thus, the Kingship of Christ is exercised by hearts that are one with His Royal Heart.
Pius XI refers to the Encyclical Letter Annum Sacrum by Pope Leo XIII, in which Pope Leo consecrated all humanity to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the same document, Pope Leo, referring to the sovereign and absolute power of Christ, declared:
In fact he exercised this proper and individual right of his when he commanded the apostles to preach his doctrine, to gather, through baptism, all men into the one body of the church, and to impose laws, from which no one can escape without endangering his own eternal salvation. [19]
Christ exercises His kingship through the grace of the Holy Spirit, which He unceasingly and uninterruptedly pours into the hearts of His faithful, who are His co-workers in the mission of saving the world. They are the stewards of His divine right by virtue of His grace dwelling in their hearts.
Here it is important to note that Christ's Kingship over the hearts of men is prior to any state or government. Indeed, the state or government must first respect freedom of religion, the freedom of man in his relationship with God, which has its most fundamental expression in freedom of conscience. The state, in fact, depends on religion for its just ordering. Anthony Esolen, in his book Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching: A Defense of the Church's True Teachings on Marriage, Family, and the State, citing Pope Leo XIII's Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum, observed:
Above all, Pope Leo reminds us that without the virtue of religion, the state becomes little more than a collection of selfishness and sensuality, unworthy of human allegiance. As for poverty and rapacity, "only religion," the Pope says, "can serve to destroy evil at its root," so that "all men should be persuaded that the principal thing necessary is a return to true Christianity, outside of which all the plans and devices of the wisest will prove of little use" (RN, 247).[20]
A healthy state or nation will especially esteem the practice of the Christian religion as essential to the right order of homes and society at large.
Likewise, the fundamental rights of man in society – and I am not talking about the ever-increasing number of so-called rights invented to promote the secularization of all life – are prior to the state, they have their foundation in the analogy of being, in man's participation in God's Being, in his Truth, Beauty and Goodness. Pope Leo XIII made it clear that the family is “a true society and prior to any civil society and therefore with rights and obligations independent of the state.”[21] These rights and obligations are inherent in the nature of man, male and female, which brings the individual man and woman to marriage and its fruit, the family. Christ's Kingship in the home liberates family members and the family as a society to enjoy these rights and fulfill these duties in accordance with God's will. The universality of Christ's Kingship is reflected in the practice of enthronement of the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the home and other places of our human activity.
The essentially social nature of Christ's Kingship is evident. The individual soul always exists in relationship with God and with others, starting from the family to the state or nation and the world. The obedience of the human heart to the Heart of Christ places the individual not only in a right relationship with God, but also with all people whom He desires to save, for whom the Heart of Christ never ceases to beat with immeasurable and unceasing love.
The social nature of Christ's Kingship is manifested most fully in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, by which Christ sacramentally makes present His death on Calvary, in order to share with man the incomparable fruit of His sacrifice: His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, offered as spiritual nourishment for man's earthly pilgrimage to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is through the Eucharistic Sacrifice, God's supreme gift and not man's invention, that the individual human heart offers itself in pure and selfless love of God and neighbor.
About the Holy Eucharist and social justice, Anthony Esolen observed:
Jesus tells us that He alone is the bread of life, that He alone has living water to give. He is the Good Shepherd; if we have Him, there is nothing else we can desire. We do not look for shepherds elsewhere. We do not bow to ideologies or political systems. We do not expect salvation from the forebodings of the great new earth to come. We do not worship the supposedly inevitable march of history. We do not worship an emperor, whatever his name may be. [22]
Participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice is the most perfect and effective means for the transformation of human hearts through union with the Heart of Christ, through submission to His Kingship of pure and selfless love.
Citing Pope Leo XIII's Encyclical Letter Mirae Caritatis, “On the Holy Eucharist,” Esolen emphasized the perfect exercise of Christ's Kingship in the Holy Eucharist. He wrote:
When a child sees, as I have seen, a man of the mightiest scientific intellect kneeling in worship before the Lord, present in the tabernacle, with the flame of the red sanctuary lamp flickering, it is as Leo says: “the mind finds its nourishment, the objections of the rationalists are set aside, and abundant light is thrown on the supernatural order” (MC, 524). If earthly nature is all that exists, then this world is a wilderness and only greater cunning separates man from beast. But “the earth is of the LORD and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell in it” (Psalm 24:1). He, the Lord of nature, in the miracle of the Eucharist, suspends the laws of that nature and has confirmed this miracle with “prodigies performed in his honor, both in ancient times and in our own, of which in more than one place there are public and remarkable records and memories.”[23]
Consider the wealth of Eucharistic miracles throughout the Christian centuries, granted by Our Lord to confirm and illuminate the kingship of His glorious pierced Heart.
When we reflect on the rebellion against the good order and peace with which God endows every human heart, especially through conscience, which leads the world and even the Church to ever greater confusion, division, and destruction of others and of themselves, we understand, as Pope Pius XI understood, the importance of our worship of Christ under His title of King of heaven and earth. Such worship is not a form of ideology. It is not the worship of an idea or an ideal.
It is communion with Christ the King, especially through the Most Holy Eucharist, through which our royal mission in Him is understood, embraced and lived. It is the reality in which we are called to live, the reality of obedience to God's Law written in our hearts and in the very nature of all things. It is the reality to which our conscience unfailingly calls us to conform our being and by which it also judges our thoughts, words and actions. It is the reality of our dignity in Christ and the high mission inherent in this dignity.
It is the reality of all things, of our world, of every political order, which we are commanded and strengthened to respect and observe, for which we are endowed with the grace to transform not only our individual lives and our families, but also the whole of society. I conclude with the words from the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the “social duty of religion and the right to religious freedom.”
The duty to render authentic worship to God concerns man individually and socially. It is “traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of individuals and societies to the true religion and the one Church of Christ.” By relentlessly evangelizing men, the Church works to ensure that they can “inform the mentality and customs, the laws and structures of the community” in which they live with the Christian spirit. The social duty of Christians is to respect and awaken in every man the love of truth and goodness. It requires them to make known the worship of the one true religion that subsists in the Catholic and Apostolic Church. Christians are called to be the light of the world. The Church thereby manifests Christ's kingship over all creation and particularly over human societies.[24]
May we, by the grace of God and through the intercession of the Virgin Mother of God, always give honor to the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ and serve Christ our King with obedience in His reign over all human hearts from His glorious Sacred Heart pierced
Thank you for your kind attention. May God bless you and your homes. Long live Christ the King!
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
[1] Ef 1, 10.
[2] Insegnamenti di Benedetto XVI, Vol. VIII, 2, 2012 (Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2012), p. 703.
[3] Ef 1, 7-10.
[4] Ef 1, 10.
[5] “… festum D. N. Iesu Christi Regis …, quotannis, ubique terrarum agendum”. Pio PP. XI, Litterae Encyclicae Quas primas, “De Festo Domini Nostri Iesu Christi Regis constituendo”, 11 Decembris 1925, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 17 (1925) 607. [QP]. Traduzione italiana: Enchiridion delle Encicliche, Vol. 5 (Bologna: Edizioni Dehoniane Bologna, 1999), n. 158, p.189. [QPIt].
[6] “Neque est cur vos, Venerabiles Fratres, diu multumque doceamus, qua de causa festum Christi Regis ab reliquis illis distinctum agi decreverimus, in quibus quaedam inesset regiae ipsius dignitatis et significatio et celebratio. Unum enim animadvertere sufficit, quod, quamquam in omnibus Domini nostri festis materiale obiectum, ut aiunt, Christus est, obiectum tamen formale a regia Christi potestate ac nomine omnino secernitur. In diem vero dominicum idcirco indiximus, ut divino Regi non modo clerus litando ac psallendo officia praestaret sua, sed etiam populus, ab usitatis occupationibus vacuus, in spiritu sanctae laetitiae, obedientiae servitutisque suae praaeclarum Christo testimonium daret…. Itaque hoc vestrum, Venerabiles Fratres, esto munus, vestrae2 hae partes sunto, ut annuae celebritati praemittendas curetis, statis diebus, ad populum e singulis paroeciis contiones, quibus is de rei natura, significatione et momento accurate monitus atque eruditus, sic vitam instituat ac componat, ut iis digna sit, qui divini Regis imperio fideliter studioseque obsequuntur.” QP, 608. Traduzione italiana: QPIt, 159, p. 190-191.
[7] Gv 14, 6.
[8] Cfr. ad esempio Sal 2, 6-8; Is 9, 6-7; Lc 1, 32-33.
[9] Cfr. Mt 25, 31-32.
[10] Cfr. QP, 594.
[11] “… Unigeniti cum Patre consubstantialitatem sanxit ad credendumque catholica fide proposuit, itemque, verba “cuius regni non erit finis” in suam fidei formulam seu Symbolum inserendo, regiam Christi dignitatem affirmavit.” QP, 595. QPIt, 141, p. 163.
[12] “… plurimorum Patrum Cardinalium, Episcoporum fideliumque precibus … aut singillatim aut communiter”. QP, 595. QPIt, 142, p. 163.
[13] “O quantum voluptatis animum Nostrum incessit, quantum solacii, cum, in Petriani templi maiestate, post latas a Nobis decretorias sententias, ab ingenti fidelium multitudine, inter gratiarum actionem, conclamatum est: Tu Rex gloriae, Christe. Namque, dum homines civitatesque a Deo alienae, per concitatas invidiae flammas intestinosque motus, in exitium atque interium aguntur, Ecclesia Dei, pergens spiritualis vitae pabulum humano generi impertire, sanctissimam, aliam ex alia, virorum feminarumque subolem Christo parit atque alit, qui, quos sibi fidissimos in terreno regno subiectos parentesque habuit, eosdem ad aeternam regni caelestis beatitatem advocare non desinit.” QP, 594-595. QPIt, 141, p. 161
[14] “Constat pariter, ex hac ardentis caritatis vi in Lexoviensi puella exstitisse propositum illud atque stadium “ob Iesu amorem laborandi, unice aut eidem placeret, Cor eius Sacratissimum consolaretur aeternamque proveheret salutem animarum, quae Christum perpetuo diligerent”: quod ipsum illam coepisse, ubi primum in caelestem patriam pervenit, patrare atque efficere, facile ex ea mystica rosarum pluvia intellegitur, quam, Deo dante, ut vivens ingenue spoponderat, in terras iam demisit pergitque demittere.” Pio PP XI, “In solemni canonizatione Beatae Teresiae ab Infante Iesu, Virginis, in Basilica Vaticana”, 17 Maii 1925, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 17 (1925), 213. Traduzione italiana: https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/it/homilies/documents/hf_p-xi_hom_19250517_benedictus-deus.html
[15] “Ut translata verbi significatione rex appellaretur Christus ob summum excellentiae gradum, quo inter omnes res creatas praestat atque eminet, iam diu communiterque usu venit. Ita enim fit, ut regnare is in mentibus hominum dicatur non tam ob mentis aciem scientiaeque suae amplitudinem, quam quod ipse est Veritas, et veritatem ab eo mortales haurire atque obedienter accipere necesse est; in voluntatibus item hominum, quia non modo sanctitati in eo voluntatis divinae perfecta prorsus respondet humanae integritas atque obtemperatio, sed etiam liberae voluntati nostrae id permotione instinctuque suo subiicit, unde ad nobilissima quaeque exardescamus. Cordium denique rex Christus agnoscitur ob eius supereminentem scientiae caritatem et manusuetudinem benignitatemque animos allicientem: nec enim quemquam usque adeo ab universitate gentium, ut Christum Iesum, aut amari aliquando contigit aut amatum iri in posterum continget. Verum, ut rem pressius ingrediamur, nemo non videt, nomen potestatemque regis, propria quidem verbi significatione, Christo homini vindicari oportere; nam, nisi quatenus homo est, a Patre potestatem et honorem et regnum accepisse dici nequit, quandoquidem Dei Verbum, cui eadem est cum Patre substantia, non potest omnia cum Patre non habere communia, proptereaque ipsum in res creatas universas summum atque absolutissimum imperium.” QP, 595-596. QPIt, 143, p. 163-165
[16] Cfr. Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Litterae encyclicae Redemptor hominis, “Pontificali eius Ministerio ineunte,” 4 Martii 1979, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 71 (1979), 316, n. 21.
[17] “Christus, factus oboediens usque ad mortem et propter hoc a Patre exaltatus (cfr. Fil. 2, 8-9), in gloriam regni sui intravit. Cui omnia subiciuntur, donec Ipse se cunctaque creata Patri subiciat, ut sit Deus omnia in omnibus (cfr. 1 Cor. 15, 27-28). Quam potestatem discipulis communicavit, ut et illi in regali libertate constituantur et sui abnegatione vitaque sancta regnum peccati in seipsis devincant (cfr. Rom. 6, 12), immo ut Christo etiam in aliis servientes, fratres suos ad Regem, cui servire regnare est, humilitate et patientia perducant”. Sacrosanctum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum II, Constitutio dogmatica Lumen gentium, “De Ecclesia”, 21 novembre 1964, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 57 (1965) 41, n.36. Traduzione italiana: https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_it.html
[18] “Turpiter, ceteroquin, erret, qui a Christo homine rerum civilium quarumlibet imperium abiudicet, cum is a Patre ius in res creatas absolutissimum sic obtineat, ut omnia in suo arbitrio sint posita. At tamen, quoad in terris vitam traduxit, ab eiusmodi dominatu exercendo se prorsus abstinuit, atque, ut humanarum rerum possessionem procurationemque olim contempsit, ita eas possessoribus et tum permisit et hodie permittit. In quo perbelle illud: Non eripit mortalia, qui regna dat caelestia. Itaque principatus Redemptoris nostri universos complectitur homines; quam ad rem verba immortalis memoriae decessoris Nostri Leonis XIII Nostra libenter facimus: “Videlicet imperium eius non est tantummodo in gentes catholici nominis, aut in eos solum, qui, sacro baptismate abluti, utique ad Ecclesiam, si spectetur ius, pertinent, quamvis vel error opinionum devios agat, vel dissensio a caritate seiungat; sed complectitur etiam quotquot numerantur christianae fidei expertes, ita ut verissime in potestate Iesus Christi sit universitas generis humani”. Nec quicquam inter singulos hac in re et convictiones domesticas civilesque interest, quia homines societate coniuncti nihilo sunt minus in potestate Christi quam singuli. Idem profecto fons privatae ac communis salutis: Et non est in alio aliquo salus, nec aliud nomen est sub caelo datum hominibus, in quo oporteat nos salvos fieri; idem et singulis civilibus et rei publicae prosperitatis auctor germanaeque beatitatis: Non enim aliunde beata civitas, aliunde homo; cum aliud civitas non sit, quam concors hominum multitudo“. QP, 600-601. QPIt, 150, p. 173-175
[19] “Re autem vera ius istud evulgare doctrinam suam, congregare homines in unum corpus Ecclesiae per lavacrum salutis, leges denique imponere, quas recusare sine salutis sempiternae discrimine nemo posset”. Leone PP. XIII, Litterae Encyclicae Annum Sacrum, “De hominibus Sacratissimo Cordi Iesu devovendis”, 25 Maii 1899, Acta Sanctae Sedis, XXXI, 648. Traduzione italiana: Enchiridion delle Encicliche, Vol. 3 (Bologna: Edizioni Dehoniane Bologna, 1997), n. 1427, p.1133.
[20] “Above all, Pope Leo reminds us that without the virtue of religion, the State becomes little more than a compact of selfishness and sensuality, not worthy of human allegiance. As to poverty and rapacity, “religion alone,” says the Pope, “can avail to destroy the evil at its root,” so that “all men should rest persuaded that the main thing needful is to return to real Christianity, apart from which all the plans and devices of the wisest will prove of little avail” (RN, 247). Anthony Esolen, Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching: A Defense of the Church’s True Teachings on Marriage, Family, and the State (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2014), p. 168. [Esolen]. Traduzione italiana a cura dell’autore.
[21] “… vera societas, eademque omni civitate antiquior; cui propterea quaedam iura officiaque esse necesse est, quae minime pendeant a republica”. Leone PP. XIII, Litterae Encyclicae Rerum Novarum, “De condicione opificum”, 15 maggio 1891, Acta Sanctae Sedis, XXIII, 645. Traduzione italiana : Enchiridion delle Encicliche, Vol. 3 (Bologna: Edizioni Dehoniane Bologna, 1997), n. 880, p.611.
[22] “Jesus tells us that He alone is the bread of life, that He alone has living water to give. He is the Good Shepherd; if we have Him, there is nothing else we shall want. We do not look for shepherds elsewhere. We do not bow down to political ideologies or systems. We do not expect salvation from presentiments of the great new earth to come. We do not worship the supposedly inevitable march of history. We do not worship an emperor, whatever his name may be.” Esolen, p. 178. Traduzione italiana a cura dell’autore.
[23] “When a child sees, as I have seen, a man of the most powerful scientific intellect kneel in adoration before the Lord, present in the tabernacle, with the flame in the red sanctuary lamp flickering, it is as Leo says, “the mind finds its nourishment, the objections of rationalists are brought to naught, and abundant light is thrown on the supernatural order” (MC, 524). If earthly nature is all there is, then this world is a wilderness, and only greater cunning separates man from beast. But “the earth is the LORD’S, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1). He, the Lord of nature, in the miracle of the Eucharist, suspends the laws of that nature and has confirmed that miracle by “prodigies wrought in His honor, both in ancient times and in our own, of which in more than one place there exist public and notable records and memorials.” Esolen, pp. 183-184. Traduzione italiana a cura dell’autore.
[24] “Officium Deo cultum authenticum tribuendi hominem individualiter et socialiter respicit”. Hoc constituit “traditionalem doctrinam catholicam de morali hominum ac societatum officio erga veram religionem et unicam Christi Ecclesiam”. Ecclesia, homines incessanter evangelizans, laborat ut ipsi possint informare “mentem et mores, leges et structuras communitatis”, in qua vivunt. Christianorum sociale officium est in unoquoque homine observare et suscitare amorem veri et boni. Ab illis petit ut cognoscendum praebeant cultum unicae verae religionis quae in catholica et apostolica Ecclesia subsistit. Christiani vocantur ut lux mundi efficiantur. Sic Ecclesia regalitatem manifestat Christ super totam creationem et speciatim super humanas societates”. Catechismus Catholicae Ecclesiae (Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), pp. 545-546, n. 2105. Traduzione italiana: https://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism_it/p3s2c1a1_it.htm