A temporal king to give true meaning to the cry, ¡Viva Cristo Rey!

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Dear Reverend Parish Priest, members of His Royal Highness’s political secretariat, fellow Carlists, and friends of the Traditionalist Communion,

I cautiously approach tonight to offer a few brief reflections, obeying a command from above, as those who know me understand that I am not a man of the liberal arts but of the servile arts. I am a poor farmer, the son of farmers, and I lack skill in the arts of oratory and teaching. These thoughts arise from conversations with my teacher and friend, Luis Infante.

Today, on the eve of the Feast of Christ the King according to the general Roman calendar – the only calendar, the traditional one – questions, and misunderstandings, come to mind. Some close friends have raised these questions regarding the idea of Monarchy and their doubts about what it would mean to have a reigning king, that is, one who governs.

It seems quite logical that those whose intellectual foundation rests on an education rooted in the novelties of the Enlightenment and the Revolution, with their false premises, cannot comprehend or accept the possibility of a single person holding power in today’s world. Yet, it is indeed possible. We see it every day in presidents, heads of state, or leaders of certain supranational organizations.

Power tends to be unified, exercised, and represented by a single person. However, what varies is the perceived source of that power and the legitimacy to assume the supreme magistracy. Thus, through the manipulation of circumstances and the constant bombardment of propaganda, we are led to believe that kings of the past were largely totalitarian tyrants with despotic tendencies. As if those in power today were not exactly that. Through this deception we navigate, with our senses and reason dulled by millions of distractions, and we might even come to believe that the tales we are told are real and that we now live freed from our hardships.

I do not wish to delve further here, as even the natural order is rejected in our time. But what about Catholics, especially the increasing numbers turning to Catholic Tradition, particularly through the discovery of the traditional Roman rite? Today, people fill their mouths with the cry, Viva Cristo Rey! That cry rightly resounded in the voices of thousands of martyrs in Mexico and Spain. But here, I ask myself: can they truly grasp the meaning and concept of a king, who is Jesus Christ, if they do not see and accept a prince as temporal lord?

In Ephesians, we are taught that all fatherhood proceeds from God the Father, and the father of a family is a reflection of God the Father in Heaven. Likewise, all authority, as we are reminded in Romans, proceeds from God. Shouldn’t that doctrine encourage the acceptance of the monarch as an image of God our Lord here on earth, given that the king is the head of political society?

Instead, we often see people exalting certain military leaders, lawyers, or the “little Napoleons” who divided up America – not through thoughtful reflection on a consistent, rooted temporal analogy, but as an effect of the sentimentalism and wishful thinking of our time.

Here, I would like to delve deeper into the spiritual aspect, where the figure of Don Enrique V of Castilla can bring us closer to the devotion of today’s Feast: Christ the King. I also bring to the forefront the Holy Mother, St. Teresa of Jesus. She, who corresponded with the Catholic Majesty Felipe II, lived under the reign of four kings and knew well what it meant to live under a monarchy. In her writings, she teaches us how to relate to Christ, how to approach God. She always speaks of Him as her King, her Majesty, Judge, Sovereign, and Lord. She learned these things at home from her parents, as she recalls in the first chapter of The Book of Her Life, and from the society in which she lived. I dare to say that it was this society that helped her and served as an instrument to deepen her knowledge of God, as she expressed in Chapter XXII of The Way of Perfection.

Thank you very much.

Viva Cristo Rey and Long live the Legitimate King!

Ramiro Sánchez de Cueto, Círculo Tradicionalista Lirio y Burgoa

Translated by the Gremio San Jerónimo