Dear Friends,

Happy Feast of the Christ the King—the last Sunday of our Liturgical Year. Established in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, this feast is a relative newcomer to the Church calendar. It was designed to give special recognition to the dominion of Christ our Lord over all aspects of our lives during a tumultuous time in the Europe and the Church.

World War I had ended only a few years before, leaving much of the world in shambles. England and the countries of continental Europe had been devastated, the Bolsheviks had taken complete control in Russia, many governments were in economic chaos, unemployment was rampant and people in many places were literally starving to death. The pessimism and sense of hopelessness that had overcome many set the stage for the rise of fascism, National Socialism and Communism. In their distress, people clung to anyone who offered them hope.