Alan Pavelin is troubled by Paul VI’s renaming of the Feast of Christ the King (Letters, 27 November). I find the whole idea of a celebration under this title troubling, and not because I am a republican. It has a murky past. 

Pressure to create such a feast began in the 1880s, backed by French monarchists eager to oppose their secular state. Leo XIII was having none of it. In an attempt to improve relations between the Holy See and Paris he asked the Archbishop of Algiers, Cardinal Lavigerie, to propose a toast to the government of France at a lunch in November 1890 attended by French naval officers – an event that has come to be known as the Ralliement. Leo’s efforts to persuade Catholics to back the French state were unsuccessful.

It is instructive to compare the original liturgy for the feast created in 1925 with the revised liturgy of 1970. The former emphasises subservience to authority and looks forward to the re-establishment of Christendom, while Paul VI’s liturgy stresses liberty rather than obedience.