Quas primas

Quas primas (Latin: In the first) was an encyclical of Pope Pius XI. Promulgated on December 11, 1925, it introduced the Feast of Christ the King.

Quas primas was a follow up to Pius's initial encyclical, Ubi arcano Dei consilio, in which he stated, "...as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations." The Pope then enjoined the faithful to seek "the Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ".

Quas primas established the Feast of Christ the King which was Pope Pius XI's response to the world's increasing secularization and nationalism.

It was written in the aftermath of World War I, which saw the fall of the Hohenzollerns, Romanovs, Habsburgs, and the Osmans. In contrast, Pope Pius XI pointed to a king "of whose kingdom there shall be no end,". In 1925 the Pope asked Édouard Hugon, professor of philosophy and theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum to work on Quas primas.

"...[T]he Word of God, as consubstantial with the Father, has all things in common with him, and therefore has necessarily supreme and absolute dominion over all things created." In Matthew 28:18 Jesus himself says, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me." In Revelations 19:16 Christ is recognized as "King of kings and Lord of lords."

The encyclical summarizes both the Old Testament and the New Testament teaching on the kingship of Christ. Invoking an earlier encyclical Annum sacrum of Pope Leo XIII, Pius XI suggests that the kingdom of Christ embraces the whole mankind. Pius explained that by virtue of Christ’s claim to kingship as creator and redeemer, societies as well as individuals owe Him obligations as king.

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