By Fr. John A. Perricone: Christ the King: An Embarrassing Feast for a “Reimagined Church”

By Fr. John A. Perricone, Crisis Magazine, Nov. 19, 2021

Fr. John A. Perricone, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor of philosophy at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. His articles have appeared in St. John’s Law Review, The Latin Mass, New Oxford Review and The Journal of Catholic Legal Studies.

Slight squeamishness settles about the minds of a certain kind of Catholic this Sunday. “Reimagined Catholics,” that is: Catholics more at home with America magazine and the National Catholic Reporter than The Baltimore Catechism and the unredacted Lives of the Saints. You know, those Catholics quite comfortable with Mr. Biden warmly received at our altar rails; or, ones giddy at the prospect of “accompanying” Catholics in their drift from the millennial doctrines of the Catholic Church. This feast is equally unsettling to the vast majority of Catholics in parishes who have received a steady diet of deracinated Catholicism and welcoming Unitarian liturgies. All of them would rather this feast pass as quickly as possible.

The feast of Christ the King trumpets a robust and sanguine Catholicism that brooks no compromise. It presents Christ as triumphant over the world, sin, and death. It proclaims Christ, Who mandates: “Go ye therefore and teach all nations” (Matthew 28:19) and, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16).  …