Vivat Christus Rex! The Cult of Christ the King, Vatican Apologetics, Catholic Action, and the Far Right

Abstract

This essay will explore the origins of the cult and doctrine of Christ the King in the encyclicals of pope Pius XI and the role which the doctrine it played in his closely-twinned strategies of ‘a Christian restoration of society in a Catholic sense’ and the propaganda battles with the Church’s enemies, especially Communism, as the theological inspiration of Catholic lay mobilisation through the organisations of Catholic Action in the world-wide Church, from the early 1920s to the 1960s. Focussed on the use of the doctrine of Christus Rex as the key tool of Vatican apologetics against the enemies of the Roman Catholic Church, the essay will also show how it came to be exploited by more right-wing Catholic groups in the inter-war period, and how it has remained a major weapon in the armoury of traditionalist Catholics, as well as far right groups, down to the present day.