Pope Benedict XV's Peace Plan for World War I

Peace is the Fruit of Mutual Charity

Pope Benedict XV was elected pope a month after World War I began. Upon his shoulders was the task of peacemaking among warring nations.

A Pope for World War I

Pope Benedict XV (Cardinal Giacomo Della Chiesa, archbishop of Bologna) was elected pope on September 3, 1914, a month after the start of World War I. He is the pope to whom the late Pope emeritus Benedict XVI (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) also referred to (in name succession) when he took the name of Benedict for his papacy (aside from referring primarily to St. Benedict of Nursia, a patron saint of Europe).

Working for peace

Pope Benedict XV wrote an encyclical that stressed the need to follow the rule of law so that the world can free itself from a direction towards violence. With this encyclical, he was preparing the grounds upon which peace would be built - a peace protected by the rights of people and not by force. A "Peace Plan" was readied by him on August 1917. It called for a negotiated peace - without winners or losers. This "Peace Plan" was based on six principles, the three major ones being:

• mutual condonation of the damages of war
• withdrawal from occupied territories
• special discussion on the territorial problems: Poland, the Balkans, and Armenia

This "Peace Plan" however failed because some governments did not approve it. Others were even hostile towards it.

Despite all that transpired, Pope Benedict XV worked hard to foster works of charity towards all the victims of war. Through his mediation, prisoners of war were interchanged by the warring nations so as to help them re-establish contacts with their families.

Appealing to Christ and His authority

All the diplomatic work and mediation efforts of Benedict XV were really based on what he wrote in that first encyclical entitled, "Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum". In this encyclical, he outlines the sad reality of a loss of charity among nations. He outlines this loss of charity in terms of race hatred, divisions wrought about by jealousies, class warfare within societies, and a self-love over-ruling law. He also states that another cause of war was the absence of respect for the authority of those exercising ruling powers. This cause, according to his encyclical, found its way also in the home - the natural origin of all ruling power. To solve this problem, Pope Benedict XV points to Romans 13:1 as a guide to all: "There is no power but from God: and those that are, are ordained of God". As regards the loss of charity among peoples, Pope Benedict XV points everyone to the universal message of Christ: "This is my commandment that you love one another" (John 15:12) [also Jn 14:34, Jn 15:17].

World War I is a lesson in history for all of us. Pope Benedict XV, as a world leader a the time, was involved a War through his peacemaking. That War had these statistics:

• 8 countries invaded
• 10 million dead
• 20 million wounded

That was World War I. World War II had even more damages. World War II's statistics are as follows:

• 70 nations involved
• 24 countries invaded
• 55 million dead
• 70 million wounded
• 40 million homeless

[source of statistics: J.L. Comellas Garcia-Llera, GER (Madrid: Ediciones Rialp, S.A., 1981), XI, 440-448]

Related resources:

• Theological Centrum Documentation Service, Vol IV, Number 3, "The Church Speaks on War and Peace"
• "Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum", by Pope Benedict XV

5th Sunday of the Year (A)

Reflections for liturgical years 2014 (A), 2015 (B), and 2016 (C)

February 9, 2014
Liturgical readings
Isaiah 58:6-10
Psalm 112
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Matthew 5:13-16

"A city on a hill cannot be hidden."

Commenting on this Sunday's gospel in Matthew 5:13-16, St. Chromatius (an outstanding scholar and prelate in the 4th century) wrote:
"The Lord called His disciples the salt of the earth because they seasoned with heavenly wisdom the hearts of men, rendered insipid by the devil...He calls them the light of the world as well, because they have been enlightened by Him, the true and everlasting Light, and have themselves become a light in the darkness."

Stories about the foundation of the city of Rome say that it was built on seven hills. Rome in the first centuries of the first millenium, was the life and center of the Roman Empire. It became the city where the successor of St. Peter governed the universal Church. The light which the Church in Rome enlightens all her children, is a light sourced from Christ, the true Light of the world. And the wisdom by which she seasons the hearts of the faithful, is a wisdom that is eternal: Christ, the eternal wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:25).

Being Christian has been difficult for early Christians in the first centuries. Humanity's senses at the time were often misled by a wisdom that is not gospel. Some were tempted to follow heresies that are not rooted in liturgical practice and tradition. But there were followers of Christ, like the martyrs and St. Chromatius, who continued to season and enlighten her members. Anyone faithful to Christ in the Church and in the world were seasoned and enlightened with the faith needed to stand firm amidst difficulties and trials. The spiritual discipline that preserves this "salt and light" made the city of God strong in witness and good works for the many centuries to follow.

Scripture quotes for reflection:
Your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed (Isaiah 58)
The Lord dawns through the darkness, a light for the upright (Psalm 112)
They set the lamp on a stand where it gives light to all in the house (Matthew 5)

The Growth of Christianity in Europe

The Growth of Medieval Christendom's Boundaries in Europe

Conversion of the Nomadic Tribes to Christianity

The rescript of Milan: an important turning point

After suffering centuries of persecution from Rome, Christianity eventually became one of the state religions of the Roman Empire. Emperor Constantine the Great declared his faith in Christianity and began to support it. In the year 313 A.D., together with Licinius, Constantine drafted the Milan program of toleration and sent it to the governors of the eastern provinces. This was the rescript of Milan. This rescript accorded Christianity full equality with the other religions of the Roman Empire. Christianity was then able to expand and develop itself as a religion: through internal organizations brought about by ecumenical councils such as Nicea (325 A.D.) and Ephesus (431 A.D.); through the exemplary leadership of Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great; and through the growth of the monastic movement under the influence of the St. Benedict, the Father of Western Monasticism.

Conquering nomadic tribes threaten Christianity

Just as Christian civilization was firmly rooting itself in many territories of the Roman Empire, a tide of nomads from the steppes came like a great wave on the Christian Roman culture and attempted to overwhelm it. These conquering nomads originated in Eastern Asia, round the periphery of China. One of these nomadic tribes were the Turco-Mongols, the main element of which were the Huns. Then there were the Alans who located themselves towards the Caspian and the Caucasus. Farther north, spaced out along the Baltic coast, lay the Finns, the Lithuanians, and the Slavs. Then the vast area stretching from the Vistula to the Rhine was peopled by various Germanic groups - the Goths, who had moved down into the Ukraine; the "shining" Ostrogoths to the east; and the "wise" Visigoths to the west. There were also Vandals on the Danube, Angles in Schleswig, Lombards on the banks of the Elbe, Saxons on the Weser, Alamanni on the Main, and a spearhead of Burgundians and Franks on the Rhine. Christian civilization was being threatened by what many historians term as the "barbarian flood".

Catholicism entering into the Middle Ages

At this time, historians record also the beginning of the fall of the Western Roman Empire at about 476 A.D. And the migration of the conquering nomadic tribes was part of the turning point to the beginning of a new age - the Middle or Medieval Age. The only bond that linked the period before the fall of the Western Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages was the Catholic Church. What is epochal and very important in the growth of Medieval Christendom's boundaries was the successive conversion of the Germanic tribes. King Clovis of the Salian Franks was baptized in 496 A.D. This began the amalgation of the Franks to Catholic Christianity. The culture of the Franks and the religious customs of the Catholic faith merged.

Conversion of more Germanic tribes, the Slavs, and the Baltic peoples

In the sixth to the seventh centuries, Catholicism also was accepted by the Lombards, the Angles, the Saxons, and the Visigoths. The conversion of the Frisians and the Hessian Germans then occurred in the seventh and the eighth centuries. The conversion of the northern Germans and the western Slavs took place during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. And finally, the Baltic peoples were incorporated into Christendom in the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries.

The Christianization of Scandinavia

The Scandinavian kings were very instrumental in the Christianization of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Danish King Sven (d. 1014) and his son Canute (d. 1035) brought missionaries into Denmark, while two Norwegian kings, both named Olaf, did the same for Norway in the eleventh century. Although the Swedes resisted conversion at first, with the conversion of their neighbors Denmark, Norway, and Poland, pressures mounted, and by the end of the eleventh century, most of the resistance was overcome. In 1164 A.D., the Pope made Uppsala a metropolitan see for all Sweden.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius converts the Slavs

During the great migrations of the nomadic tribes, the Slavs spread across central Europe and occupied the wide stretch of land from the Dnieper to the Elbe and Saale rivers, including Bohemia. It was during these times that St. Cyril (d. 869) and St. Methodius (d. 885) became missionaries of the Christian faith to the Slavs in Moravia in the ninth century. St. Cyril invented the Slavonic alphabet by combining Greek letters with some new ones in order to provide the Slavs with a liturgical language.

Bohemia, Poland and Hungary become Christian states

Christianity made real progress among the Slavic peoples when the Bohemian princes looked to Germany for protection against the fierce Magyar invaders. Their alliance with Germany therefore influenced them toward Christianity. In 973 A.D., an episcopate in Bohemia was founded at Prague. From here, Christianity spread among the Poles, whose renowned Prince Mieszko (d. 990) firmly established the Polish Kingdom and presented his realm to the Pope. A papal charter gave Poland its own ecclesiastical organization - bringing Poland into the Western orbit. The conversion of the Hungarians was likewise carried out during the tenth and eleventh centuries.

The Christianization of Russia, Livonia, Prussia and Lithuania

For a time it looked as if Russia would follow Poland and Hungary into the papal orbit. Russia was already receiving Christian missionaries from both the East and the West as early as the ninth century. But it was only under Vladimir (d. 1015) that Christianity was fully adopted. This Russian prince sought counsel with emissaries of the Pope and the Patriarch as well as with Moslems and Jews. After weighing all the pros and cons, he finally decided to accept baptism in the Byzantine Church. After Russia, the last Eastern Europeans to accept Christianity were the Baltic people of Livonia, Prussia, and Lithuania in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

References of this article

• A History of the Church, by Franzen and Dolan
• A Concise History of the Catholic Church, by Thomas Bokenkotter
• The History of the World in Two Hundred and Forty Pages, by Rene Sedillot