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Pope Benedict XV

Benedict XV was a Pope of reconciliation and peace during World War I. When Giacomo Della Chiesa was raised to the Chair of Peter as Pope Benedict XV in 1914, he affirmed that he chose that name because he was Cardinal of Bologna and wanted to pay tribute to Benedict XIV, the last Pope to be elected from the see of Bologna. Under St. Pius X, Archbishop Della Chiesa (the future Benedict XV) had been sent to Bologna in exile from the Roman Curia because he was distrusted as a protégé and supporter of Cardinal Rampolla, a known modernist.

Giacomo Delia Chiesa was born 21 November, 1854; and died 21 January, 1922. He was the second son of Giuseppe Márchese délia Chiesa, of Genoese nobility, and Giovanna Migliorati of Venice. Belonging to his family on his mother's aide was Innocent VII, Roman pontiff 1404-1406. After preparatory studies he entered the university in his native city, receiving there his doctorate in both civil and canon law in 1873. His father desired that he should become a lawyer, but Giacomo wished to dedicate himself to the priesthood. Accordingly he went to the Collegio Capranica in Rome for his ecclesiastical studies, and completed them at the Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles.

He was ordained priest 21 December, 1878. Appointed secretary to Mgr. Rampolla in the Sacred Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, he followed him to Madrid when Rampolla was apostolic nuncio there, and returned when his distinguished chief was made cardinal and Secretary of State by Leo XIII in 1887. He remained at that post after the death of Leo XIII, and for the first four years of the pontificate of Pius X. During that time he had advanced through successive grades until he reached that of Substitute. When Cardinal Swampa died, in 1907, Mgr. délia Chiesa was chosen as his successor in the See of Bologna, and was consecrated by Pius X himself in the Sistine Chapel. On 25 May, 1914, he was made cardinal and on 3 September of that year was elected to succeed Pius X. He took the name of Benedict XV.

His pontificate lasted for seven years, four months, and nineteen days; all of them synchronous with the years of the most tragic crisis in the world's history, the World War. His first encyclical, "Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum Principis," was issued at the beginning of the titanic struggle; his second, "Pacem Dei Munus Pulcherrimum," coincided with the meeting of the plenipotentiaries in their endeavor to reconstruct the map of Europe and give peace to the world. Between these t wo major utterances of the pope, there are three others, those of 22 January, 1915, the great Appeal of 28 July 1915, addressed to the belligerents and their leaders, and, on 1 August, 1917, the offer made by him to act as mediator for a general peace.

In all of these documents, however, it must be noted he cited no one to his tribunal. To have done so would not only not have been conducive to peace, but would have aroused jealousy on all sides and would also have exposed the Church itself to the most serious perturbations. Nevertheless, he regarded himself as obligated to condemn all violations of international justice and morality, no matter by whom they were committed, meantime lavishing hie bounties on all the victims of the war, by securing through diplomatic channels the exchange of wounded soldiers, the liberation of civilian prisoners, the hospitalizaron of the wounded, the repatriation, of prisoners whose families needed their help, etc.

His message of 1 August, 1917, was a plea for the application of Articles 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the Hague Conference of 1907, and sketched in large lines tho organization established in 1919 and known as the League of Nations, such as, for instance, general and proportional disarmament, obligatory arbitration, freedom of the seas, reciprocal cancellation of the general indebtedness, total evacuation of Belgium and France, and other countries and colonies, finally the rectification of frontiers, in keeping with the just aspirations of the various peoples and the general good of human society. All this was done before it became evident that the victory was to be with the Allies, so that a proposition of such a kind and at such a moment should dispel forever the calumny that the document was inspired by Germany. Unfortunately, this appeal of the pope was not treated with even the common courtesy of an acknowledgment by the Entente, their purpose being to pointedly ignore him and to exclude all Sovereign Pontiffs from any share in European diplomacy.

In his Encyclical of 1917, "Pacem," the pope almost replies to their silence and reminds the diplomats that in a league founded on the basis of Christianity there can be no better instrument employed than the Church, not only for the eternal interest of man, but for his material prosperity.

The pope became something of the center of the diplomatic world, for whereas the nations had very few representatives accredited to the Holy See, prior to the war, once it was over, almost all the nations of the world were represented there. Italy welcomed in Monte Citorio the admission of a hundred Catholic legislators to check the danger of the rising tide of Socialism. The ceremonial code was modified to facilitate the reception of European kings and princes at the Vatican. France, in particular, was mollified by the canonization of Joan of Arc and Margaret Mary, and by the assurance as far as possible of the pope's interest in the Orient. Ireland rejoiced in the beatification of Oliver Plunket, the Archbishop of Armagh, and his associate heroes.

During his pontificate the New Code of Canon Law was draughted. Modernism was again condemned and the new term of Integralism was forbidden, while on the other hand the traditional position against minimizing was maintained in Biblical controversies and in the teaching of the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas. Benedict XV in the few brief years of his pontificate established in out-of-the-way places in the world 9 prefectures apostolic, 28 vicariates apostolic, 25 new bishoprics, 8 archbishoprics, and 2 apostolic delegations.