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Australia and the Popes

Pope Benedict XV : 1914-1922

As the photo above probably illustrates, Pope Benedict XV, was a man cut from a completely different cloth to his predecessor. Elevated to the position of Supreme Pontiff at the beginning of the greatest war human civilisation had ever witnessed, Giacomo della Chiesa (21 Nov 1854-11 Jan 1922) was no populist but a skilled diplomat of noble birth, intellectual aptitude and one who valued the quality of moderation in thought and behaviour.

Least controversial pontificate:

Until the recent election of Cardinal Ratzinger who chose the name Benedict XVI as his papal name, Benedict XV was perhaps one of the more obscure and lesser remembered popes of the twentieth century. His diplomacy and moderation probably also helped ensure that he was one of the least controversial.

Della Chiesa had only been a cardinal for three months when the conclave was held following the death of Pius XI. On the outbreak of the Great War Cardinal della Chiesa had made a speech on the Church's position and duties in the event of war. In it he emphasised the need for neutrality and promoting peace and the easing of suffering.

The 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.

Benedict XV's pontificate was dominated by the Great War, which he termed "the suicide of Europe", and its turbulent aftermath. His early call for a Christmas truce in 1914 was ignored, and though the Pope organised significant humanitarian efforts (establishing a Vatican bureau, for instance, to help prisoners of war from all nations contact their families) and made many unsuccessful attempts to negotiate peace, his effectiveness even in Italy was undermined by his pacifist stance.

The best known was the seven-point Papal Peace proposal of August 1917, demanding a cessation of hostilities, a reduction of armaments, guaranteed freedom of the seas, and international arbitration. Only United States President, Woodrow Wilson, responded directly, declaring that a declaration of peace was premature. In Europe each side saw him as biased in favour of the other and were unwilling to accept the terms he proposed. This resentment contributed to the exclusion of the Vatican from the Paris Peace conference of 1919. Despite this, he wrote an encyclical pleading for international reconciliation, Pacem, Dei Munus Pulcherrimum (On Peace and Christian Reconciliation).

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The textual material on these pages was sourced from a large number of places all of which can be found through the links on each page. The material was researched, assembled and produced by Brian Coyne for Catholic Australia. The images used in the Flash animations are in the public domain. Other images used are in the public domain or sourced from the webpages to which they are linked.