The
namesake of Benedict XVI, Benedict XV was pope during the period of
World War I, an conflict which produced unheard of death and devastation
in Europe and which fundamentally shattered many people's faith in
modern science, rationality and modernity in general. Benedict himself
was rendered largely inconsequential during the war - although he
pursued neutrality even while he condemned atrocities, his peace
proposals were generally rejected and when the final peace settlement
was being negotiated, he was given no role at all.
In
fact, his efforts to remain completely neutral resulted in both sides of
the conflict regarding him as being complicit with the other. He had
established a "missing persons" agency to help people displaced during
the war become reunited with each other but he was forced to close it
down because various government grew suspicious that it was being used
for espionage.
Benedict was also active in the effort to unify all of Christianity
under a single leadership (namely, the pope's). To that end, he
established the Congregation for the Oriental Church and the Pontifical
Oriental Institute in Rome in 1917 as part of the long-standing Catholic
desire to bring the Eastern Orthodox churches under Roman control.
Pope Benedict XV's Peace Proposal
1 August, 1917
TO THE HEADS OF THE BELLIGERENT PEOPLES:
From the beginning of Our Pontificate, amidst the horrors of the
terrible war unleashed upon Europe, We have kept before Our attention
three things above all: to preserve complete impartiality in relation to
all the belligerents, as is appropriate to him who is the common father
and who loves all his children with equal affection; to endeavor
constantly to do all the most possible good, without personal exceptions
and without national or religious distinctions, a duty which the
universal law of charity, as well as the supreme spiritual charge
entrusted to Us by Christ, dictates to Us; finally, as Our peacemaking
mission equally demands, to leave nothing undone within Our power, which
could assist in hastening the end of this calamity, by trying to lead
the peoples and their heads to more moderate frames of mind and to the
calm deliberations of peace, of a "just and lasting" peace.
Whoever has followed Our work during the three unhappy years which
have just elapsed, has been able to recognize with ease that We have
always remained faithful to Our resolution of absolute impartiality and
to Our practical policy of well-doing . We have never ceased to urge the
belligerent peoples and Governments to become brothers once more, even
although publicity has not been given to all which We have done to
attain this most noble end....
First of all, the fundamental point should be that for the material
force of arms should be substituted the moral force of law; hence a just
agreement by all for the simultaneous and reciprocal reduction of
armaments, according to rules and guarantees to be established to the
degree necessary and sufficient for the maintenance of public order in
each State; then, instead of armies, the institution of arbitration,
with its lofty peacemaking function, according to the standards to be
agreed upon and with sanctions to be decided against the State which
might refuse to submit international questions to arbitration or to
accept its decisions.
Once the supremacy of law has been established, let every obstacle to
the ways of communication between the peoples be removed, by ensuring
through rules to be fixed in similar fashion, the true freedom and
common use of the seas. This would, on the one hand, remove many reasons
for conflict and, on the other, would open new sources of prosperity and
progress to all....
With regard to territorial
questions, such as those disputed between Italy and Austria, and between
Germany and France, there is ground for hope that in consideration of
the immense advantages of a lasting peace with disarmament, the
conflicting parties will examine them in a conciliatory frame of mind,
taking into account so far as it is just and practicable, as We have
said previously, the aspirations of the peoples and coordinating, according to circumstances, particular interests with
the general good of the great human society.
The same spirit of equity and justice should direct the examination
of other territorial and political questions, notably those relating to
Armenia, the Balkan States, and the territories composing the ancient
Kingdom of Poland, for which especially its noble historical traditions
and the sufferings which it has undergone, particularly during the
present war, ought rightly to enlist the sympathies of the nations. Such
are the principal foundations upon which We believe the future
reorganization of peoples should rest. They are of a kind which would
make impossible the recurrence of such conflicts and would pave the way
for a solution of the economic question, so important for the future and
the material welfare of all the belligerent States.
