Denver Newsroom, Nov 22, 2023 / 04:00 am
The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, celebrated this year on Nov. 25, is also referred to as the feast of Christ the King, Christ the King Sunday, and Reign of Christ Sunday.
Although the concept of Jesus Christ as King is as old as the Gospels, the feast is fairly recent in the Roman Catholic calendar. It was introduced in the Western liturgical calendar in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, via the encyclical Quas Primas.
Surprisingly, the first parish in the world to be consecrated in honor of Our Lord Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI not in Europe but in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1926.
“The 225 worshippers who attended Our Lord Christ the King’s first Mass on December 5, 1926, embodied the essence of what it means to be ‘church.’ With neither bricks nor mortar to call their own, this gathering of believers placed their faith in Providence and celebrated early liturgies in humble surroundings,” reads an account posted on the parish’s website. “There was no electricity for the first Eucharist, so the room was illuminated by headlights beamed from parked cars. Pastor Father Edward J. Quinn, a former World War I chaplain, used his Army Mass kit.”