Quas Primas

The encyclical " Quas primate " was instituted by Pope Pius XI. signed on 11 December 1925 and introduced the Solemnity of Christ the King in the liturgical calendar.

The Pope wanted with this festival a sign placed against the destructive forces of time. Christ is king not only in the figurative sense, it means real power with legislative, judicial and executive power. This power is primarily a spiritual nature, the Pope does not want, as Pius IX. in 1864 with his encyclical " Quanta Cura ", provide the separation of church and state in question, but he stressed that they in principle also extends to all temporal things, but their management is left to the competent people. As fruits of the recognition of the sovereignty of Christ, the Pope expects "just freedom, order, peace, harmony and peace. "

The political thrust of the encyclical was obvious and had quite ambivalent effect. For one, the Christ the King in the Nazi era was the Catholic event against the cult of the leader, on the other hand, the emphasis of the monarchy in a Christian context also had a clearly anti- democratic tendency. The Catholic Church in Germany to prevent the downfall of democracy through the power of Hitler neither tried nor regrets. Not a few bishops hoped not from Hitler, but rather from an authoritarian leader " order, peace, harmony and peace. " It's possible that the positive effect of the encyclical and the Christ the King feast itself was made possible that the negative is first entered.