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| Benedict XV | |
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| Papacy began | September 3, 1914 |
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| Papacy ended | January 22, 1922 |
| Predecessor | Pius X |
| Successor | Pius XI |
| Birth name | Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa |
| Born | November 22, 1854 Genoa, Italy |
| Died | January 22, 1922 (aged 67) Apostolic Palace, Rome, Italy |
| Other popes named Benedict | |
Pope Benedict XV (Latin: Benedictus PP. XV), (Italian: Benedetto XV), (21 November 1854 – January 22, 1922), born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from September 3, 1914 to January 22, 1922; he succeeded Pope Pius X (1903–14). His pontificate was largely overshadowed by World War One and its political, social and humanitarian consequences in Europe.
Between 1846 and 1903, the Church experienced its two longest pontificates in history at that time. Together Pius IX and Leo XIII ruled for fifty-seven years. In 1914, the Cardinals choose Della Chiesa at the age of sixty, indicating their desire for another long-lasting pontificate at the outbreak of World War One, which he labelled “the suicide of civilized Europe”.[1] The war and its consequences were the main focus of Della Chiesa. He 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. French politician Georges Clemenceau regarded the Vatican initiative as anti-French. [2] Having failed with diplomatic initiatives, the Pope 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 the Pope now permitted Catholic politicians led by Don Luigi Sturzo to participate in national Italian politics. Benedict issued in 1917 the first ever Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church, the creation of which he had prepared with Pietro Gasparri and Eugenio Pacelli during the pontificate of Pius X. The new Canon law is considered to have stimulated religious life and activities throughout the Church [3] He named the Pietro Gasparri to be his Cardinal Secretary of State and personally consecrated Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli on 13 May 1917 as Archbishop on the very day of the Marian apparitions in Fatima. World War One created great damages for Catholic missions throughout the world. Benedict revitalized these activities, asking in Maximum Illud Catholics throughout the world to participate. His last concern was the emerging persecution of the Church in the Soviet Union and the famine there after the revolution. Less than seven years in office, Pope Benedict XV died on January 22 1922. With his diplomatic skills and his openness towards the modern world, "he gained respect for himself and the papacy" [4]
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Early life
Giacomo della Chiesa was born at Pegli, a suburb of Genoa, Italy, the son of marchese Giuseppe della Chiesa and his wife marchesa Giovanna Migliorati.[5] His wish to become a priest was rejected early on by his father who insisted on a legal career for his son Giacomo. [6] At the age of twenty-one he aquired a doctorate on law on August 2, 1875. He had attended the University of Genua, 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, in order not to end up as a village priest or provincial Monsignore [7]
Della Chieas entered the Collegio Capranica, where in 1878 Pope Pius IX died and was followed by 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 priest by Cardinal Patrizzi was ordained priest on December 21 1878. [8] From 1878 until 1883 he studies at the Papal Academy Pontificia Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici in Rome. There is was required to defend every Thursday a research paper, to which Cardinals and high members of the Roman Curia were invited. This is how he met Cardinal Mariano Rampolla, who furthered his entry in the the diplomatic service of the Vatican in 1882. Once he had entered the diplomatic service, Mariano Cardinal Rampolla employed him as a secretary on being posted to Madrid [9] and subsequently on being appointed Cardinal Secretary of State. During these years Della Chiesa helped negotiate the resolution of a dispute between Germany and Spain over the Caroline Islands as well as organising relief during a cholera epidemic. When Rampolla left his post with the election of Pope Pius X, and was succeeded by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val, Della Chiesa was retained in his post.
But 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 (with its more strongly uncompromising foreign policy) somewhat uncomfortable. He was soon moved out of the diplomatic service, on December 18, 1907 becoming Archbishop of Bologna. On 22 December 1907 he received the episcopal consacration from Pope St. Pius X himself.
On May 25, 1914 Della Chiesa was created a cardinal, becomiCardinal Priest of the titulus Ss. Quattuor Coronatorum. In this capacity, on the outbreak of World War I (1914–18) – with the papacy vacant upon Pius X's death on August 20, 1914 – he made a speech on the Church's position and duties, emphasising 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. Thus on September 3, 1914 Della Chiesa, despite having been a Cardinal only three months, was elected Pope, taking the name of Benedict XV.[10]
Due to the enduring Roman Question, after the announcement of his election by the Cardinal Protodeacon the new Pope, following in the footsteps of his two predecessors, did not appear at the balcony of St. Peter's basilica to grant the urbi et orbi blessing. Benedict XV was crowned at the Sistine Chapel on 6 September 1930, and, also as a form of protest due to the Roman Question, there was no ceremony for the formal possession of the cathedral of St. John Lateran.
Pontificate
Benedict XV's pontificate was dominated by World War I, which he termed "the suicide of Europe", and its turbulent aftermath. Benedict's first encyclical extended a heartfelt plea for an end to hostilities. His early call for a Christmas truce in 1914 was ignored. The Pope organized 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, 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. His best known intervention 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 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 (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 [11] There is a statue in Saint Peter's Basilica of the Pontiff absorbed in prayer, kneeling on a tomb which commemorates a fallen soldier of the war, which he described as a "useless massacre".
In the post-war period Benedict was involved in developing the Church administration to deal with the new international system that had emerged.
In internal Church affairs, Benedict XV reiterated Pius X's condemnation of "modernist" scholars and the errors in modern philosophical systems in his first encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, and declined to readmit to full communion scholars who had been excommunicated during the previous pontificate. However, he calmed what he saw as the excesses of the anti-modernist campaign within the Church.
The Pope was also disturbed by the Communist revolution in Russia. The Pope reacted with horror to the strongly anti-religious policies adopted by Lenin's government and the bloodshed and widespread famine which occurred during the subsequent Russian Civil War.
In 1917 Benedict XV promulgated the Church's first Code of Canon Law, the preparation of which had been commissioned by Pope St. Pius X, and which is thus known as the Pio-Benedictine Code. This Code, which entered into force in 1918, was the first consolidation of the Church's Canon Law into a modern Code made up of simple articles. Previously, Canon Law was dispersed in a variety of sources and partial compilations.
Benedict attempted to improve relations with the anticlerical Republican government of France. He 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 replace the European missionaries as soon as possible, and founded the Pontifical Oriental Institute of Studies and the Coptic College in the Vatican.
On July 25, 1920 he wrote the motu proprio Bonum sane on Saint Joseph and against naturalism.
In physical appearance, Benedict XV was a slight man (the smallest of the three cassocks which had been prepared for whoever the new Pope might be in 1914 was still a good deal too big for him). As a result, he became known as "Il Piccolito" or "The Little Man" He was renowned for his generosity, answering all pleas for help from poor Roman families with large cash gifts from his private revenues. When he was short on money, those who would be admitted to an audience would often be instructed by prelates not to mention their financial woes, as Benedict would inevitably feel bad that he could not help the needy. He also depleted the Vatican's official revenues with large-scale charitable expenditure during World War I. On his death, the Vatican Treasury had been depleted to the equivalent in lire of U.S.$19,000. (Reference: Michael Burleigh, Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics from the Great War to the War on Terror, HarperCollins, 2007, p.70). Money had to be borrowed to pay for his funeral expenses.
Benedict XV had a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He added the title 'Queen of Peace' to her Litany, and gave his support to an understanding of Mary as Mediatrix of All Graces (by approving a Mass and office under this title for the dioceses of Belgium) and affirmed that "together with Christ she redeemed the human race" by her immolation of Christ as his sorrowful mother (in his apostolic letter Inter sodalicia).
Death and Legacy
Benedict XV fell ill with pneumonia in early January 1922. He succumbed to pneumonia on January 22.
Possibly the least remembered pope of the twentieth century, Benedict XV is nevertheless an unsung hero for his valiant efforts to end World War I. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI recognized the significance of his long-ago predecessor's commitment to peace by taking the same name. Benedict XV was unique in his humane approach in the world of 1914–1918, which starkly contrasts with that of the other great monarchs and leaders of the time. His worth is reflected in the tribute engraved at the foot of the statue that the Turks, a non-Catholic, non-Christian people, erected of him in Istanbul: "The great Pope of the world tragedy...the benefactor of all people, irrespective of nationality or religion." This monument stands in the courtyard of the St. Esprit Cathedral.
Pope Benedict XVI
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger showed his own admiration for Benedict XV following his election to the Papacy on April 19, 2005. The election of a new Pope is often accompanied by conjecture over his choice of papal name; it is widely believed that a Pope chooses the name of a predecessor whose teachings and legacy he wishes to continue. Ratzinger's choice of "Benedict" was seen as a signal that Benedict XV's views on humanitarian diplomacy, and his stance against relativism and modernism, would be emulated during the reign of the new Pope.
During his first General Audience in St. Peter's Square on April 27, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to Benedict XV when explaining his choice: "Filled with sentiments of awe and thanksgiving, I wish to speak of why I chose the name Benedict. Firstly, I remember Pope Benedict XV, that courageous prophet of peace, who guided the Church through turbulent times of war. In his footsteps I place my ministry in the service of reconciliation and harmony between peoples."
See also
Notes
- ^ Franzen 379
- ^ Franzen 380
- ^ Franzen 382
- ^ Franzen 382
- ^ George L. Williams, Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the Popes (2004:133), reports that his father's family had produced Pope Callistus II (1119-24) and claimed descent from Berengar II of Italy, and that the Migliorati had produced Innocent VII 1404-06).
- ^ De Waal 7
- ^ De Waal 14-15
- ^ De Waal 19
- ^ De Waal 43
- ^ Note on numbering: Pope Benedict X is now considered an antipope. At the time, however, this status was not recognized and so the man the Roman Catholic church officially considers the tenth true Pope Benedict took the official number XI, rather than X. This has advanced the numbering of all subsequent Popes Benedict by one. Popes Benedict XI-XVI are, from an official point of view, the tenth through fifteenth popes by that name. In other words, there is no legitimate Pope Benedict X.
- ^ DEI MUNUS PULCHERRIMUM ENCYCLICAL OF POPE BENEDICT XV ON PEACE AND CHRISTIAN RECONCILIATION TO THE PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES, ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, AND ORDINARIES IN PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE HOLY SEE
References
- Peters, Walter H. The Life of Benedict XV. 1959. Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company.
- Daughters of St. Paul. "Popes of the Twentieth Century". 1983. Pauline Books and Media
- Pollard, John F. "The Unknown Pope". 1999. London: Geoffrey Chapman
External links
- Pope Benedict XVI. (German)
- Vatican website: Benedict XV; texts of encyclicals etc.
- Benedict XV's five point peace plan
- Tomb of Benedict XV - Vatican Grottoes
- New Catholic Dictionary: Benedict XV
- Canonization of Joan of Arc:by Benedict XV
- Memorial Page for Benedict XV
- FirstWorldWar.com: Who's Who
- The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Giacomo Della Chiesa
| Episcopal Lineage | |
| Consecrated by: | Pope Pius X |
| Date of consecration: | 22 December 1907 |
| Consecrator of | |
|---|---|
| Bishop | Date of consecration |
| Antonio Lega | 21 June 1914 |
| Sebastiano Nicotra | 1917 |
| Eugenio Pacelli | 13 May 1917 |
| Willem Cardinal van Rossum | 19 May 1918 |
| Ersilio Menzani | 25 January 1921 |
| Federico Tedeschini | 5 May 1921 |
| Carlo Cremonesi | 8 January 1922 |
| Roman Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Domenico Cardinal Svampa |
Archbishop of Bologna 1907 – 1914 |
Succeeded by Giorgio Cardinal Gusmini |
| Preceded by Pius X |
Pope 1914 – 1922 |
Succeeded by Pius XI |
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