The priesthood for Christ the King

By the Mass, the priest leads people to Christ the King. Faithful to his Roman teacher, Fr. Marc Voegtli, Archbishop Lefebvre sees in the Mass the most solemn proclamation of Christ’s kingship. In the hymn Vexilla regis, we sing “Regnavit a ligno Deus”: God reigned from the wood, the wood of His cross. On the cross he conquered the devil, sin and eternal death, and this work of redemption is carried on in every Mass.[1 ]

• 1“as often as the remembrance of this Victim is celebrated, so often is the work of our Redemption carried on” (Secret prayer of the 9th Sunday after Pentecost)

The victory of Christ the King is brought about by the Mass but it is also a conquest: it extends to all souls, to families, the Catholic school, and also reaches into the professional life, the laws, the politics and the entire life of society. This is the integral work of the Catholic priesthood.

In the sermon for his priestly jubilee on September 23, 1979, Archbishop Lefebvre mentions the marvelous effects of the Mass in society. He himself had witnessed it as a missionary priest in Africa:
 

That is where I saw it, yes, I saw what the grace of the Mass can do. I saw it in the holy souls of some of our catechists. I saw it in the souls of these pagans transformed by attending Mass, by Holy Communion. These souls understood the mystery of the sacrifice of the cross, uniting themselves to Our Lord in the sufferings of His cross.

I was able to see those pagan villages become Christian, transformed not only spiritually and supernaturally but also transformed physically, socially, economically and politically, because these former pagans became aware of the need to keep their promises, particularly their marriage vows. Then the village began to be transformed little by little under the influence of the grace of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

"Das große Mittel, um das Reich unseres Herrn und die christlichen Einrichtungen zu zerstören, ist die Laizisierung und Säkularisierung der Staaten und Gesellschaften; dadurch kommt es unweigerlich – als logische und unerbittliche Konsequenz – zur Säkularisierung und Laizisierung der Familien, und nicht nur der Familien, sondern auch der Seminare und des Klerus.“

Erzbischof Lefebvre, Ecône, 25. Mai 1985