Pope Benedict XV

Pope Benedict XV (; ; born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, ; 21 November 1854 – 22 January 1922) was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his death in January 1922. His pontificate was largely overshadowed by World War I and its political, social, and humanitarian consequences in Europe.

Between 1846 and 1903, the Catholic Church had experienced two of its longest pontificates in history up to that point. Together Pius IX and Leo XIII ruled for a total of 57 years. In 1914, the College of Cardinals chose della Chiesa at the relatively young age of 59 at the outbreak of World War I, which he labeled " the suicide of civilized Europe". The war and its consequences were the main focus of Benedict XV. He immediately declared the neutrality of the Holy See and attempted from that perspective to mediate peace in 1916 and 1917. Both sides rejected his initiatives. German Protestants rejected any "Papal Peace" as insulting. The French politician Georges Clemenceau regarded the Vatican initiative as being anti-French.Franzen 380 Having failed with diplomatic initiatives, Benedict XV focused on humanitarian efforts to lessen the impacts of the war, such as attending prisoners of war, the exchange of wounded soldiers and food deliveries to needy populations in Europe. After the war, he repaired the difficult relations with France, which re-established relations with the Vatican in 1921. During his pontificate, relations with Italy improved as well, as Benedict XV now permitted Catholic politicians led by Don Luigi Sturzo to participate in national Italian politics.

In 1917, Benedict XV promulgated the Code of Canon Law, which was released on 27 May, the creation of which he had prepared with Eugenio Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII) and Pietro Gasparri during the pontificate of Pope Pius X. The new Code of Canon Law is considered to have stimulated religious life and activities throughout the Church. He named Gasparri to be his Cardinal Secretary of State and personally consecrated Nuncio Pacelli on 13 May 1917 as Archbishop. World War I caused great damage to Catholic missions throughout the world. Benedict XV revitalized these activities, asking in '' Maximum illud'' for Catholics throughout the world to participate. For that, he has been referred to as the "Pope of Missions". His last concern was the emerging persecution of the Catholic Church in Soviet Russia and the famine there after the revolution. Benedict XV was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and authorized the Feast of Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces.AAS 1921, 345

After seven years in office, Pope Benedict XV died on 22 January 1922 after battling pneumonia since the start of that month. He was buried in the grottoes of Saint Peter's Basilica. With his diplomatic skills and his openness towards modern society, "he gained respect for himself and the papacy."Franzen 382

Early life

Giacomo della Chiesa was born prematurely at Pegli, a suburb of Genoa, Italy, the third son and sixth child of Marquess Giuseppe della Chiesa (1821–1892) and his wife Marchioness Giovanna Filippa Vittoria Maria Migliorati (1827–1904). Genealogy findings report that his father's side produced Pope Callixtus II and also claimed descent from Berengar II of Italy and that his maternal family produced Pope Innocent VII. He was also a descendant of Blessed Antonio della Chiesa. His sister, Giulia della Chiesa (1850 - ?) married in 1876 Faustino Persico. His brother, Giovanni Antonio della Chiesa (1853 - 1920), married Eugenia Jacobini (1863 - 1918), the niece of Cardinal Angelo Jacobini, and had issue. Due to his premature birth, Giacomo was left with a limp and completed much of his early education at home. His other brother Giovanni Antonio was an admiral in the Italian navy.

His wish to become a priest was rejected early on by his father, who insisted on a legal career for his son. At age 21 he acquired a doctorate in Law on 2 August 1875. He had attended the University of Genoa, which after the unification of Italy was largely dominated by anti-Catholic and anti-clerical politics. With his doctorate in Law and at legal age, he again asked his father for permission to study for the priesthood, which was now reluctantly granted. He insisted, however, that his son conduct his theological studies in Rome, not in Genoa, so that he would not end up as a village priest or provincial monsignore.

Della Chiesa entered the Almo Collegio Capranica and was there in Rome when, in 1878, Pope Pius IX died and was followed by Pope Leo XIII. The new pope received the students of the Capranica in private audience only a few days after his coronation. Shortly thereafter, della Chiesa was ordained a priest by Cardinal Raffaele Monaco La Valletta on 21 December 1878 at the Lateran basilica.

From 1878 until 1883 he studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome. It was there, on every Thursday, that students were required to defend a research paper, to which cardinals and high members of the Roman Curia were invited. Mariano Rampolla, then Secretary for Oriental Affairs of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, took note of him and furthered his entry in the diplomatic service of the Vatican in 1882, where he was employed by Rampolla as a secretary and in January 1883 accompanied nuncio Rampolla to Madrid.

Just after Leo XIII's death in 1903, Rampolla tried to make della Chiesa the secretary of the conclave, but the Sacred College elected Rafael Merry del Val, a conservative young prelate, the first sign that Rampolla would not be the next Pope. When Cardinal Rampolla had to leave his post with the election of his opponent Pope Pius X, and was succeeded by Merry del Val, della Chiesa was retained in his post.

Bologna

Archbishop

Della Chiesa's association with Rampolla, the architect of Pope Leo XIII's (1878–1903) foreign policy, made his position in the Secretariat of State under the new pontificate somewhat uncomfortable. Italian papers announced that on 15 April 1907 the papal nuncio Aristide Rinaldini in Madrid would be replaced by della Chiesa, who had worked there before. Pius X, chuckling over the journalist's knowledge, commented, "Unfortunately, the paper forgot to mention whom I nominated as the next Archbishop of Bologna." The Vatican had supposedly "gone so far as to make out the papers naming him the papal nuncio, but ella Chiesarefused to accept them". On 18 December 1907, in the presence of his family, the diplomatic corps, numerous bishops and cardinals, and his friend Rampolla, he received the episcopal consecration from Pope Pius X himself. The Pope donated his own episcopal ring and crosier to the new bishop and spent much time with the della Chiesa family on the following day. On 23 February 1908, della Chiesa took possession of his new diocese, which included 700,000 persons, 750 priests, as well as 19 male and 78 female religious institutes. In the episcopal seminary, some 25 teachers educated 120 students preparing for the priesthood.

As bishop, he visited all parishes, making a special effort to see the smaller ones in the mountains which could only be accessed on horse-back. He always saw preaching as the main obligation of a bishop. He usually gave two or more sermons a day during his visitations. His emphasis was on cleanliness inside all churches and chapels and on saving money wherever possible, for he said, "Let us save to give to the poor." A meeting of all priests in a synod had to be postponed at the wish of the Vatican considering ongoing changes in Canon Law. Numerous churches were built or restored. He personally originated a major reform of the educational orientation of the seminary, adding more science courses and classic education to the curriculum. He organized pilgrimages to Marian shrines in Loreto and Lourdes at the 50th anniversary of the apparition.De Waal 121 The unexpected death of his friend, supporter and mentor Rampolla on 16 December 1913 was a major blow to della Chiesa, who was one of the beneficiaries of his will.

Cardinal

It was a custom that the Archbishop of Bologna would be made a cardinal in one of the coming consistories. In Bologna this was surely expected of della Chiesa as well, since, in previous years, either cardinals were named as archbishops, or archbishops as cardinals soon thereafter.De Waal 110 Pius X did not follow this tradition and left della Chiesa waiting for almost seven years. When a delegation from Bologna visited him to ask for della Chiesa's promotion to the College of Cardinals, he jokingly replied by making fun of his own family name, Sarto (meaning "tailor"), for he said, "Sorry, but a Sarto has not been found yet to make the cardinal's robe."

Cardinal Rampolla died on 16 December 1913. On 25 May 1914, della Chiesa was created a cardinal, becoming Cardinal-Priest of the '' titulus'' ''Santi Quattro Coronati,'' which before him was occupied by Pietro Respighi. When the new cardinal tried to return to Bologna after the consistory in Rome, an unrelated socialist, anti-monarchic and anti-Catholic uprising began to take place in Central Italy. This was accompanied by a general strike, the looting and destruction of churches, telephone connections and railway buildings, and a proclamation of a secular republic. In Bologna itself, citizens and the Catholic Church opposed such developments successfully. The Socialists overwhelmingly won the following regional elections with great majorities.

As World War I approached, the question was hotly discussed in Italy as to which side to be on. Officially, Italy was still in an alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary. However, in the Tyrol, an integral part of Austria which was mostly German-speaking, the southern part, the province of Trentino, was exclusively Italian-speaking. The clergy of Bologna was not totally free from nationalistic fervor either. Therefore, in his capacity as Archbishop, on the outbreak of World War I, della Chiesa made a speech on the Church's position and duties, emphasizing the need for neutrality, promoting peace and the easing of suffering.

Pontificate

Election to the Papacy

Following the death of Pius X, the resulting conclave opened at the end of August 1914. The war would clearly be the dominant issue of the new pontificate, so the cardinals' priority was to choose a man with great diplomatic experience. Thus on 3 September 1914, della Chiesa, despite having been a cardinal only three months, was elected pope, taking the name of Benedict XV. He chose the name because of his devotion to St. Benedict of Nursia, perhaps also in honour of Pope Benedict XIV, who had been an archbishop from Bologna. Upon being elected pope, he was also formally the Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, prefect of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office and prefect of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation. There was, however, a Cardinal-Secretary to run these bodies on a day-to-day basis.

Due to the enduring Roman Question, after the announcement of his election to the papacy by the Cardinal Protodeacon, Benedict XV, following in the footsteps of his two most recent predecessors, did not appear on the balcony of St. Peter's basilica overlooking St. Peter's Square to grant the '' urbi et orbi'' blessing. Benedict XV was crowned in the Sistine Chapel on 6 September 1914, and, also as a form of protest due to the Roman question, there was no ceremony for the formal possession of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.

In the 1914 conclave, the cardinals were divided into two factions: the "reactionaries" and the "conservatives". The decade-long campaign waged against Modernism cast a cloud over the conclave, and also ensured on the part of the deceased pontiff that there were fewer moderate and progressive cardinals in the Sacred College. However, the cardinals feared that one of the sides in World War I might potentially influence the conclave to elect a pope that would prove amenable to their side and their positions. While the cardinals expressed relief in the abolition of the veto in 1904, there was still a palpable fear that there would be subtle attempts to exert control over the cardinals, hence, deep suspicion in many cardinals of their European colleagues. During the conclave, Cardinal Domenico Serafini and his faction had enough votes to ensure that della Chiesa was not elected, particularly since the eighth ballot had della Chiesa with a majority, though below the two-thirds needed for election.

While Serafini was considered "''papabile''" due to his position at the Holy Office, and his alignment with the policies of Pius X, other cardinals such as Andrea Carlo Ferrari and Désiré-Joseph Mercier believed that the new pope needed to focus not on Modernism and doctrinal debates, but rather, a softer focus after the somewhat harsh reign of Pius X. To that end, those cardinals turned towards electing the liberal Archbishop of Pisa Pietro Maffi. Della Chiesa, on the other hand, was wedged between Maffi and Serafini as representing the best and worst of both factions, hence his contention in the balloting. While della Chiesa seemed to secure support from some conservative cardinals, Maffi lagged considerably and hence Serafini was positioned as della Chiesa's main rival. Since Maffi had lagged in the balloting, his supporters decided to counter Serafini and threw their support for della Chiesa, securing his election by only one vote in what was a protracted conclave.

Upon his election, Benedict XV was unable to locate a suitable cassock to wear since the three that were available to him did not appropriately fit his frail form. From a diary that recorded the events of the conclave, "the papal habit that was chosen was the small one, but lacking in some part, and being a little long, it was adapted with clothespin pins, and raised and covered with a gold tassel sash".

Peace efforts

Benedict XV's pontificate was dominated by World War I, which he termed, along with its turbulent aftermath, "the suicide of Europe." Benedict's first encyclical extended a heartfelt plea for an end to hostilities. His early call for a general Christmas truce in 1914 was ignored, although informal truces were organized. Late in the war, in May–October 1917, the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima occurred in Fatima, Portugal, apparitions that would be declared "worthy of belief" in 1930 during the papacy of his successor, Pius XI.

The national antagonisms between the warring parties were accentuated by religious differences before the war, with France, Italy and Belgium being largely Catholic. Vatican relations with Great Britain were good, while neither Prussia nor Imperial Germany had any official relations with the Vatican. In Protestant circles of Germany, the notion was popular that the Catholic Pope was neutral on paper only, strongly favoring the allies instead.Conrad Gröber, ''Handbuch der Religiösen Gegenwartsfragen'', Herder Freiburg, DE 1937, 493 Benedict was said to have prompted Austria-Hungary to go to war in order to weaken the German war machine. Also, allegedly, the Papal Nuncio in Paris explained in a meeting of the '' Institut Catholique'', "to fight against France is to fight against God", and the Pope was said to have exclaimed that he was sorry not to be a Frenchman. The Belgian Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier, known as a brave patriot during German occupation but also famous for his anti-German propaganda, was said to have been favored by Benedict XV for his enmity to the German cause. After the war, Benedict also allegedly praised the Treaty of Versailles, which humiliated the Germans.

These allegations were rejected by the Vatican's Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri, who wrote on 4 March 1916 that the Holy See is completely impartial and does not favor the allied side. This was even more important, so Gasparri noted, after the diplomatic representatives of Germany and Austria-Hungary to the Vatican were expelled from Rome by Italian authorities.Gröber 495 However, considering all this, German Protestants rejected any "Papal Peace", calling it insulting. French politician Georges Clemenceau, a fierce anti-clerical, claimed to regard the Vatican initiative as anti-French. Benedict made many unsuccessful attempts to negotiate peace, but these pleas for a negotiated peace made him unpopular, even in Catholic countries like Italy, among many supporters of the war who were determined to accept nothing less than total victory.Pollard, 136

On 1 August 1917, Benedict issued a seven-point peace plan stating that:
# "the moral force of right… be substituted for the material force of arms,"
# there must be "simultaneous and reciprocal diminution of armaments,"
# a mechanism for "international arbitration must be established,"
# "true liberty and common rights over the sea" should exist,
# there should be a "renunciation of war indemnities,"
# occupied territories should be evacuated, and
# there should be "an examination… of rival claims."

Great Britain reacted favorably though popular opinion was mixed. President of the United States Woodrow Wilson rejected the plan. Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary were also favorable, but Germany replied ambiguously. Benedict also called for outlawing conscription, a call he repeated in 1921.

Some of the proposals eventually were included in Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points call for peace in January 1918.

In Europe, each side saw him as biased in favor of the other and was unwilling to accept the terms he proposed. Still, although unsuccessful, his diplomatic efforts during the war are credited with an increase of papal prestige and served as a model in the 20th century for the peace efforts of Pius XII before and during World War II, the policies of Paul VI during the Vietnam War, and the position of John Paul II before and during the Iraq War.

In addition to his efforts in the field of international diplomacy Pope Benedict also tried to bring about peace through Christian faith, as he published a special prayer in 1915 to be spoken by Catholics throughout the world.

Humanitarian efforts

Almost from the beginning of the war, November 1914, Benedict negotiated with the warring parties about an exchange of wounded and other prisoners of war who were unable to continue fighting. Tens of thousands of such prisoners were exchanged through his intervention. On 15 January 1915, he proposed an exchange of civilians from the occupied zones, which resulted in 20,000 persons being sent to unoccupied Southern France in one month. In 1916, Benedict managed to hammer out an agreement between both sides by which 29,000 prisoners with lung disease from the gas attacks could be sent into Switzerland. In May 1918, he also negotiated an agreement whereby prisoners on both sides with at least 18 months of captivity and four children at home would also be sent to neutral Switzerland.

He succeeded in 1915 in reaching an agreement by which the warring parties promised not to let prisoners of war (POWs) work on Sundays and holidays. Several individuals on both sides were spared the death penalty after his intervention. Hostages were exchanged and corpses repatriated. The Pope founded the ''Opera dei Prigionieri'' to assist in distributing information on prisoners. By the end of the war, some 600,000 items of correspondence were processed by the Vatican. Almost a third of it concerned missing persons. Some 40,000 people had asked for help in the repatriation of sick POWs and 50,000 letters were sent from families to their loved ones who were POWs.

Both during and after the war, Benedict was primarily concerned about the fate of the children, on whose behalf he issued an encyclical. In 1916 he appealed to the people and clergy of the United States to help him feed the starving children in German-occupied Belgium. His aid to children was not limited to Belgium but extended to children in Lithuania, Poland, Lebanon, Montenegro, Syria and Russia. Benedict was particularly appalled at the new military invention of aerial warfare and protested several times against it to no avail.Pollard 116

In May and June 1915, the Ottoman Empire waged a genocide against the Armenian Christian minorities in Anatolia. The Vatican attempted to get Germany and Austria-Hungary involved in protesting to its Turkish ally. The Pope himself sent a personal letter to Sultan Mehmed V, who was also Caliph of Islam. It had no success "as over a million Armenians died, either killed outright by the Turks or from maltreatment or starvation".

After the war

At the time, the anti-Vatican resentment, combined with Italian diplomatic moves to isolate the Vatican in light of the unresolved Roman Question, contributed to the exclusion of the Vatican from the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 (although it was also part of a historical pattern of political and diplomatic marginalization of the papacy after the loss of the Papal States). Despite this, he wrote an encyclical pleading for international reconciliation, ''Pacem, Dei Munus Pulcherrimum.''

After the war, Benedict focused the Vatican's activities on overcoming famine and misery in Europe and establishing contacts and relations with the many new states which were created because of the demise of Imperial Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Germany. Large food shipments, and information about and contacts with POWs, were to be the first steps for a better understanding of the papacy in Europe.

Regarding the Versailles Peace Conference, the Vatican believed that the economic conditions imposed on Germany were too harsh and threatened the European economic stability as a whole. Cardinal Gasparri believed that the peace conditions and the humiliation of the Germans would likely result in another war as soon as Germany would be militarily in a position to start one. The Vatican also rejected the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, seeing in this step an inevitable and eventual strengthening of Germany. The Vatican also had great reservations about the creation of small successor states which, in the view of Gasparri, were not viable economically and therefore condemned to economic misery. Benedict rejected the League of Nations as a secular organization that was not built on Christian values.Pollard 147 On the other hand, he also condemned European nationalism that was rampant in the 1920s and asked for "European Unification" in his 1920 encyclical ''Pacem Dei Munus Pulcherrimum'', "peace, a beautiful gift of God". Similarly, Benedict XV extolled the virtues of peace, denouncing the fragility of a peace that is not wholly oriented towards reconciliation. Prophetically, the Pope wrote that "if almost everywhere the war somehow ended and some peace pacts were signed, the germs of ancient grudges still remain. No peace has value if hatred and enmities are not put down together by means of a reconciliation based on mutual charity".

The pope was also disturbed by the communist revolution in Russia. He reacted with horror to the strongly anti-religious policies adopted by Vladimir Lenin's government along with the bloodshed and widespread famine which occurred during the subsequent Russian Civil War. He undertook the greatest efforts trying to help the victims of the Russian famine with millions in relief.

Diplomatic agenda

In the post-war period, Pope Benedict XV was involved in developing the Church administration to deal with the new international system that had emerged. The papacy was faced with the emergence of numerous new states such as Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Finland, and others. Germany, France, Italy, and Austria were impoverished from the war. In addition, the traditional social and cultural European order was threatened by right-wing nationalism and fascism as well as left-wing socialism and communism, all of which potentially threatened the existence and freedom of the Church. To deal with these and related issues, Benedict engaged in what he knew best, a large scale diplomatic offensive to secure the rights of the faithful in all countries.

Italy

Leo XIII already had agreed to the participation of Catholics in local but not national politics. Relations with Italy improved as well under Benedict XV, who de facto reversed the stiff anti-Italian policy of his predecessors by allowing Catholics to participate in national elections as well. This led to a surgence of the Italian People's Party under Luigi Sturzo. Anti-Catholic politicians were gradually replaced by persons who were neutral or even sympathetic to the Catholic Church. King Victor Emmanuel III himself gave signals of his desire for better relations, when, for example, he sent personal condolences to the Pontiff on the death of his brother.

Benedict XV, along with most traditional Catholics of his time, opposed voting rights for women in principle, on the grounds that it would take them out of their "natural sphere". However, he was pragmatic and recognized female suffrage could be a "social necessity in some countries...in order to counter the generally subversive views of the socialists with the supposedly conservative votes of women", believing that women would help support traditional Catholic positions if granted suffrage.

France

Benedict XV also attempted to improve relations with the anti-clerical Republican government of France, and canonized the French national heroine Saint Joan of Arc. In the mission territories of the Third World, he emphasized the necessity of training native priests to quickly replace the European missionaries, and founded the Pontifical Oriental Institute and the Coptic College in the Vatican. Pius XI would entrust the "Orientale" to the Jesuits and make it a part of the Jesuit's Gregorian Consortium in Rome (along with the Gregorian University and the Biblicum). In 1921, France re-established diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

Soviet Union

The end of the war caused the revolutionary development, which Benedict XV had foreseen in his first encyclical. With the Russian Revolution, the Vatican was faced with a new, so far unknown, situation.

Lithuania and Estonia

The relations with Russia changed drastically for a second reason. The Baltic states and Poland gained their independence from Russia after World War I, thus enabling a relatively free Church life in those former Russia-controlled countries. Estonia was the first country to look for Vatican ties. On 11 April 1919, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri informed the Estonian authorities that the Vatican would agree to have diplomatic relations. A concordat

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