Useless massacres

The job of the pontiff is truly complicated. Sitting on the chair of Peter has always been very uncomfortable and not even reference to papal authority is a guarantee for a life free from criticism and controversy. It's a bit like the story of all popes, the current one as well as the previous ones. Rereading some biographies I focused on that of Benedict XV. Cardinal Giacomo della Casa was elected a few weeks after the start of the First World War (September 1914). A diplomatic expert, he immediately engaged in various peace initiatives: starting with the publication of his first encyclical, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, of 1 November 1914 with which he asked rulers to lay down their arms . He was convinced that the cause of the conflict had roots in individualistic, liberal and secularized modernity: a world that bases itself on the individual, his rights and forgets God can only fall into the spiral of violence. He tried to slow down Italian entry into the First World War, also out of fear that the last openly Catholic states in Europe, such as the Austrian Empire, could falter.

Beyond the motivations, which today are at least questionable, the fact remains of the coherence of the Pope's commitment to peace. Consistency that led him to be harshly criticized - if not blissfully ignored - by all the protagonists of the time. For the Germans he was a pro-French pope, for the French a "Krawn" pope, for the Italian government and the interventionists a defeatist, guilty of wanting to make the "home front" surrender. Several Catholics in various countries (including members of the clergy), clouded by the nationalistic spirit of the time, took a stand against him. Perhaps it is worth rereading some passages of the famous note of August 1, 1917: if the language is a little rhetorical and paternalistic, the themes are however current, especially in a time like ours in which the war in Ukraine seems to be prolonged without prospects of a cessation fire. In the text, remembered for having defined the conflict as «this terrible struggle, which, every day, appears to be a useless massacre», the pontiff wished to offer concrete diplomatic indications for emerging from the conflict: to immediately address European territorial issues and beyond ( the Armenian question is also mentioned) as a necessary prerequisite for managing the economic claims at a later stage. Therefore, first of all, law and, with it, disarmament.

"And first of all, the fundamental point must be that the moral force of law replaces the material force of weapons. Therefore, a just agreement of all in the simultaneous and mutual reduction of armaments according to rules and guarantees to be established, to the extent necessary and sufficient for the maintenance of public order in the individual States; and, in place of weapons, the institution of arbitration with its high pacifying function, according to the norms to be agreed upon and the sanction to be agreed against the State that refuses to either submit international questions to arbitrariness or to accept its decision. […] As for damages and war expenses, we see no other escape than in the general rule of an entire and reciprocal condonation, justified by the rest of the immense benefits of disarmament; especially since one would not understand the continuation of such carnage solely for economic reasons".

Finally, an appeal to the leaders of the nations. «It reflects on your very serious responsibility before God and before men; the peace and joy of countless families, the lives of thousands of young people, the very happiness of peoples, which you have the absolute duty to procure, depend on your resolutions."

Once the war was over, his commitment to peace did not cease: the concern that the peace negotiations in Paris would generate new reasons for future clashes was constant for him. Precisely in 1920, in the encyclical Pacem, Dei Munus Pulcherrimum, he recalled the importance of overcoming hatred and enmity through authentic reconciliation based on charity. Prophetic indications not to be overlooked.


Renato Bonomo
NP October 2023