The answer to these questions is that in this encyclical Pope Pius XI reaffirmed the unbroken teaching of his predecessors upon the papal throne that states as well as individuals must submit themselves to the rule of Christ the King. In affirming this fundamental truth of our faith, Pope Pius was not referring simply to Catholic nations, or even to Christian nations, but to the whole of mankind. He stated this truth unequivocally by quoting a passage from the encyclical, Annum Sacrum of Pope Leo XIII:

It is only when men live their lives within the correct perspective of the Creator-creature relationship that social and political harmony and order prevail. "the peace of Christ is the Kingdom of Christ." When men repudiate this relationship, disharmony and disorder take over, the disharmony and disorder of sin, the disharmony and disorder introduced for the first time into the whole creation when the Archangel Lucifer. the most magnificent of all God's creatures, was overcome with pride and boasted: Non serviam --- "I will not serve." The Catechism teaches us that our purpose in life is to know, love, and serve God in this world so that we can be happy with Him forever in the next. We cannot claim to love God if we do not serve Him, and we cannot claim to serve God if we do not subject ourselves to the law of Christ the King. 

"If you love Me, He warned, "keep My Commandments." [John 14:15]

In Quas Primas, Pope Pius XI explains the second reason that we must subject ourselves to Our Lord. He explains the beautiful and profound truth that Christ is our King by acquired, as well as by natural right, for He is our Redeemer. "Would that those who forget what they have cost Our Savior," the Pope admonished us, "might  recall the words: 'You were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a Iamb unspotted and undefiled.' We are no longer our own, for Christ has purchased us 'with a great price;' our very bodies are the 'members of Christ.' "

  The double claim of Our Lord Jesus Christ to our allegiance, as our Creator and our Redeemer, is well summarized in the Book of the Apocalypse, where St. John tells us that Christ is "the ruler of the kings of the earth." (Apoc. 17: 18). The fact that the kings of the earth ----- in other words, the nations and those who rule them ----- are subject to the Kingship of Christ pertains to what is known as His Social Kingship, that is, His right to rule over societies as well as individuals.

 THE SOCIAL KINGSHIP OF CHRIST

  No one claiming to be a Christian would, one hopes, dispute the fact that as individuals we must submit ourselves to the rule of Christ the King, but very few Christians, Catholics included, and conservative Catholics among them, understand, let alone uphold, the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is an attitude which is very common among certain well-known politicians in the United States who, while claiming to be Catholics, state with apparent pride that they do not permit their private beliefs to impinge upon their public duties. They uphold with apparent certainty the principle of the separation of Church and State. [This is a very strange attitude fur a Catholic to take, but some of these politicians appear to be very strange Catholics.]

  The separation of Church and State was condemned unequivocally by the Roman Pontiffs until the Second Vatican Council. The Church's teaching is that the State has an obligation to render public worship to God in accord with the teachings of the True Church, the Catholic Church, and positively to aid the Catholic Church in the carrying out of her functions. The State does not have the right to remain neutral regarding religion, much less to pursue a secular approach in its policies. A secular approach is by that very fact an anti-God and an anti-Christ approach. This unequivocal teaching was summarized very clearly by Pope St. Pius X, who, in his encyclical Vehementer Nos, condemned the principle of the  separation of Church and State as "an absolutely false and most pernicious thesis."

  The practical consequences of this Catholic teaching are difficult to imagine for those of us who have known nothing but a secular state, in which the State claims to have no responsibilities in matters of religion and morality. [The secular state outlaws certain immoral acts, not because they are immoral, but because the majority wish them outlawed.] 

Nevertheless, we must admit that this claim of the secular state is profoundly wrong.

  The only word adequate to describe the claim by a Catholic politician that he will not allow his private beliefs to impinge upon his public duties is blasphemy ----- or at least open rebellion against God. For the Commandments of God are binding in public as well as in private, and it is blasphemous for a Christian to maintain the contrary.

   The Commandment "Thou shalt not kill" precludes the taking of innocent human life. We can take another human life only as an act of self-defense, to save our lives, those of our families or friends or our fellow citizens against an unjust aggressor; but never, never, never, does any human being have the right to take the life of an innocent person. Unborn infants certainly come into this category, a fact stated forcefully, courageously, and unambiguously by our Holy Father Pope John Paul II in his encyclical letter Centesimus Annus of 1 May 1991, commemorating the centenary of Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum. May God bless him for it.

  Who could be more innocent of aggressive intent than an unborn child within the womb of his mother? Who could be more clearly protected by God's absolute prohibition against taking the life of the innocent than an unborn child within the womb of his mother?

  What exactly is a politician such as Governor Cuomo claiming when he states that he is personally against abortion but that, as a politician, he must respect the right of a woman to murder her unborn baby? He is basing this alleged right on the fact that it has been "granted" by the law of the United States, just as it has been granted by the governments of almost every country in the Western World. In other words ----- and I am sure that Governor Cuomo would not dispute this ----- he believes that a right is acquired when it is accorded by the majority of citizens within a state. In believing this, he has accepted, in place of the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and His right to rule over societies as well as individuals, the abominable theory of democracy enshrined in the French Revolution's Declaration of the Rights of Man, the declaration which constituted a formal and insolent repudiation of the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the declaration which enshrined the greatest heresy of modern times, perhaps of all times: that authority resides in the people. On the contrary, as the Popes have taught, Omnis potestas a Deo -----"All authority comes from God."

   "Not so!" reply the revolutionaries. Omnis potestas a populo -----"All authority comes from the people."

   How well the term "revolutionaries" applies to these men! A revolution is best defined as the forcible overthrow of an established government, and this is precisely what they did. They overthrew the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ in favor of what is rightly termed the heresy  that authority resides in the will of the majority ----- the heresy that is the source of all the evils in society today.