Et per omnium orbem terrarum! Hardly do we need the reminder which comes in the second verse of the hymn at today’s Vespers, “Scelesta turba clamitat: ‘Regnare Christum nolumus!’” While the rabble thus cries in Seoul and throughout the whole world, yet there is a remnant, a faithful flock which, despite the cries of the scelesta turba, proudly and boldy proclaims Christ to be the King of every land and nation. Thus Fr. Thomas Ononda (SSPX/FSSPX) exhorted us before leading us into the streets of Seoul for a Eucharistic Procession in honor of Christ the King.

Ad hoc in aris abderis
Vini dapisque imagine,
Fundens salutem filiis
Transverberato pectore.

For this on Altar dost bide,
In form of wine and feast dost hide,
That from that pierced breast may flow
Salvation’s stream on us below.

The flock at the Immaculate Conception chapel of the SSPX in Seoul, Corea is small, but their reasons for seeking out Tradition are the same as many of ours. For instance, one Corean man there with whom we spoke said that he had been a protestant, had been turned off by the guitars and drums, and so left. But when he found the Catholic Church, the same happy clappy met him. After some reading, he found his way to Latin the Mass.

The congregation at Immaculate Conception is a mixture of different nationalities. While the persons there are Corean for the most part, one will find a number of French families there and, like today, an interloping American or Brit. These French families are not necessarily permanent residents of Corea, nor are they business travelers; rather, they’ve come to work for a company for an extended period, and they come to Immaculate Conception in search of the immemorial Mass which the FSSPX, FSSP, ICKSP, and other fraternities have preserved and nurtured throughout France. So it is truly an international congregation, being led even by a foreigner, Fr. Thomas Onoda, who is Japanese.

Te nationum Praesides
Honore tollant publico,
Colant magistri, iudices,
Leges et artes exprimant.

The rulers of the nations all
Shall at Thy feet adoring fall,
All judges magnify Thy name,
All laws and arts show forth Thy fame.

Doesn’t this verse express something of Benedict XVI’s message to Europe? Europe, as it once gloriously shone, was build upon the foundation of the Christ, upon the culture of the Church. Our laws themselves, our scholars, our learning are forced to confess that Christ is the King of nations. At least, if certain men are unwilling to do so now, they will be forced to confess at the end of time, when every knee will bend. Yet isn’t this truth one which we sometimes have difficulty in proclaiming boldly?

In his homily, which he always gives first in Corean and then in English, Fr. Onoda chided Benedict XVI for failing to state this truth boldly before the world when the spotlight was on the Pope because of his speech at Regensburg. While we cheer all the good that the Holy Father is doing, we cannot forget how the voice of the Church has been diminished from the days when Leo XIII could say, before the whole world, in his “Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus”:

“Be Thou King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions . . . Be Thou King of all those who are still involved in the darkness of idolatry and Islamism, and refuse not to draw them all into the light and kingdom of God!”

How can we ignore the words of Pope Pius XI? “Men must look for the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ” (Quas Primas). Please allow me to quote Droleskey-style from that glorious encyclical, Quas Primas (1925) - every Catholic must know these words:

Thus the empire of our Redeemer embraces all men. To use the words of Our immortal predecessor, Pope Leo XIII:

“His empire includes not only Catholic nations, not only baptized persons who, though of right belonging to the Church, have been led astray by error, or have been cut off from her by schism, but also all those who are outside the Christian faith; so that truly the whole of mankind is subject to the power of Jesus Christ.”

Nor is there any difference in this matter between the individual and the family or the State; for all men, whether collectively or individually, are under the dominion of Christ. In him is the salvation of the individual, in him is the salvation of society.

“Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.”

He is the author of happiness and true prosperity for every man and for every nation.

“For a nation is happy when its citizens are happy. What else is a nation but a number of men living in concord?”

If, therefore, the rulers of nations wish to preserve their authority, to promote and increase the prosperity of their countries, they will not neglect the public duty of reverence and obedience to the rule of Christ. What We said at the beginning of Our Pontificate concerning the decline of public authority, and the lack of respect for the same, is equally true at the present day.

“With God and Jesus Christ,” we said, “excluded from political life, with authority derived not from God but from man, the very basis of that authority has been taken away, because the chief reason of the distinction between ruler and subject has been eliminated. The result is that human society is tottering to its fall, because it has no longer a secure and solid foundation.”

When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.

I cannot judge the Holy Father, but at the least, anyone can see that Benedict’s endorsement of secular democracy in a pluralistic society, even one in which the voice of the Catholic Church is heard, is a rejection of a very different arrangement of things envisioned by Leo XIII and Pius XI. Perhaps Benedict knows better than they or the situation has fundamentally changed since 1925.

May we still pray in the words of the hymn from which I have been quoting?

Submissa regum fulgeant
Tibi dicata insignia:
Mitique sceptro patriam
Domosque subde civium.

Let kingly crowns more glorious shine
When consecrated, Lord, as Thine:
Place Thou our land and homes today
Beneath Thy mild and gracious sway.

From Immaculate Conception chapel, we passed into the streets of Seoul, singing only in Latin, for Latin was our common language today, whether Corean, French or American. St. Thomas Aquinas was our choirmaster; what would he think of his hymns sung among the people of Seoul on a sunny fall Sunday? How many centuries later and across how many lands, no one can praise the Blessed Sacrament better than Thomas. We sang through the Adoro Te Devote and Pange lingua several times, along with other hymns.

As we walked, the children strew the way with flower petals and the friendly Corean people on the streets and in the shops stopped what they were doing and stared. What is that canopy? Why those banners? Where did those foreigners come from? Who is that Japanese man carrying the curious gold object with such solemnity?

Please God, through our Eucharistic procession and hymns, some extra measure of grace will descend upon this divided land and upon the Catholic Church in Corea.

Jesu, tibi sit gloria,
Qui sceptra mundi temperas,
Cum Patre, et almo Spiritu,
In sempiterna saecula. Amen.

O Jesus, praise to Thee we yield,
Who dost Thy guiding scepter wield,
With Father and with Holy Ghost,
Reigning for aye over heaven’s host. Amen.

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